OCA CIRCULAR NO. 87-2008, September 08, 2008

The Supreme Court En Bane in its Resolution dated August 12, 2008 in A.M. No. 08-7-429-RTC, Re: Queries and Comments of Judges on Administrative Order No. 125-2007 [Guidelines on the Solemnization of Marriage by the Members of the Judiciary.- The Court Resolved, among others upon the recommendation of the Court Administrator, to

“x x x

c) DIRECT the Judges of multiple sala courts to strictly observe the raffling of requests for solemnization of marriage because of numerous anomalies discovered in the solemnization of marriage during various judicial audits in the lower court. Unless for valid reasons, the refusal of a judge to participate in the raffle of request for solemnization of marriage shall be construed as shirking from judicial duty;

d) DISALLOW special raffle in the solemnization of marriage except in very remote cases i.e. the judge to whom the request was raffled cannot perform the marriage due to any fortuitous event or unavoidable circumstances. Likewise, assigning individual request to a certain judge is disallowed so as not to defeat the purpose of the issuance of the abovementioned Order; and

e) REQUIRE all request for solemnization of marriage in instances where the offices of the first and second level courts (multiple sala or not) are located in the same Hall of Justice, to be filed with the Office of the Clerk of Court of the Regional Trial Court of said area. The requests would then be raffled and equally distributed among the first and second !eve! court judges thereat.”

For strict compliance.

September __8__, 2008.