KATARUNGANG

PAMBARANGAY
A report by
Group I
INTRODUCTION
A system of amicably settling disputes at the barangay
level, without resort to judicial or court intervention.
It seeks to promote, among others, the speedy
administration of justice, by providing all avenues to an
amicable settlement, thereby reducing considerably the
dockets in our courts.
It started with a proposal for reform by the late Chief
Justice Fred Ruiz Castro to President Marcos in 1976.
On January 27, 1978, Presidential Decree No. 1293 was
promulgated, creating the Presidential Katarungang
Pambarangay Commission charged with the task of
studying the feasibility of instituting a system of resolving
disputes among family and barangay members without
resort to the courts.
Chief Justice Fred Ruiz Castro was made Chairman of the
Commission. The draft submitted by this Commission was
signed into law on June 10, 1978, as Presidential Decree
No. 1508.



the Katarungang Pambarangay Law seeks to achieve a two-
fold goal:
a. to promote the speedy administration and enhance
the quality of justice by relieving the courts of docket
congestion caused by indiscriminate filing of cases;
b. to perpetuate and officially recognize the time-
honored tradition of amicably settling disputes among
family and barangay members at the barangay level,
without judicial recourse, thus, implementing the
constitutional mandate to preserve and develop
Filipino culture, and to strengthen the family as a
basic social institution.
P.D. 1508 was later on repealed by R.A. 7160 or the Local
Government Code of 1991 which retained the mandate of
the Barangay Justice System and Revised the KP Law.
The thrust on decentralization has facilitated the
recognition of the Katarungang Pambarangay or Barangay
Justice System as an alternative venue for the resolution of
disputes. The KP continued to function through the LGC.



the Local Government Code makes KP mediation and
conciliation a condition precedent to the filing of cases in
court. Though non-compliance does not result in
jurisdictional defect thereby rendering the court
proceedings void ab initio, such failure, if seasonably
raised, makes the case vulnerable to a motion to dismiss
on the ground of prematurity (Garces vs. CA, 162 SCRA
504).
this Court wishes to emphasize the vital role which the
revised katarungang pambarangay law plays in the
delivery of justice at the barangay level, in promoting
peace, stability, and progress therein, and in effectively
preventing or reducing expensive and wearisome litigation.
Parties to disputes cognizable by the lupon should, with
sincerity, exhaust the remedies provided by that law,
government prosecutors should exercise due diligence in
ascertaining compliance with it, and trial courts should not
hesitate to impose the appropriate sanctions for non-
compliance thereof. (Uy vs. Contreras GR 111416)