Key changes include:
• use of videoconferencing
• recorded depositions
• recorded interviews
• technological tools to help children explain what happened
These technological tools are in addition to existing testimonial aids such as dolls, drawings, and puppets.
Courts may allow children to testify via videoconferencing from outside the courtroom if testifying in person is likely to cause them trauma. The court may also limit whom the child can see and hear, including the accused, while preserving the accused’s constitutional rights, including the right to confront the witness. If the child needs to identify the accused, the accused may briefly turn on the camera, or the child may identify the accused from an image displayed on screen.
If a child cannot testify at trial or via videoconferencing due to a disability, health concerns, or other reasons, the child’s testimony may be taken through an electronically recorded deposition in the presence of the judge and lawyers for both sides. The recording may be used in place of the child’s in-court testimony.
To spare children from having to recount painful experiences and retraumatization, the RRECW encourages and allows a recorded interview with the child by a team of professionals, or its transcript, to be presented as evidence. If the child cannot testify, the recording may be presented instead, provided the interviewer asked neutral, open-ended, age-appropriate, and trauma-informed questions without suggesting answers. If the child testifies at trial, the recording may replace the child’s earlier written statements. All parties must be given a copy and a chance to view the recording, and the interviewer must be present for questioning at trial.
The RRECW applies to children who are victims of crimes, children in conflict with the law, and child witnesses in all criminal, civil, special, and administrative proceedings.
Read the full text of the Press Release at: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/?p=176167
Read the full text of the Resolution in A.M. No. 25-03-23-SC, Revised Rule on the Examination of Child Witnesses at: https://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/?p=176162
Supreme Court of the Philippines