Effectiveness of Barangay Justice System in Zamboanga City: An Assessment

The objective of this study is to assess the effectiveness of the Barangay Justice System (BJS) in Zamboanga City, a highlyurbanized city in the southern part of the Philippines. The BJS employs a community approach to assist in the prevention and management of local disputes, thereby alleviating the burden on the formal judiciary system and court processes. The data collection methods employed in this study are both quantitative and qualitative. These methods include surveys of two hundred (200) residents of the area, interviews with twenty (20) Barangay officials and mediators, and secondary data from the BJS and other formal courts. The quantitative finding shows that a high level of effectiveness in case disposition with eighty percent (80%) of the respondents confirming that they were able to solve their cases through the BJS. Also, the surveys revealed that seventy five percent (75%) of the residents reported high levels of satisfaction or simple satisfaction with the services and results of the BJS. The qualitative results demonstrate the advantageous attributes of BJS, such as accessibility, cost efficiency, and community involvement. Nevertheless, there are still some challenges that persist, such as inadequate resources, certain biases, and inadequate mediator training. The BJS reduces the workload of the formal courts, as forty percent (40%) of the local court cases that could have been heard by the BJS would have been heard by the formal courts, according to the study. This means that only those cases that are complicated or those that have not been solved through the conflicting parties are taken to the formal judiciary thus increasing the efficiency of the judiciary