Nimfa C. Vilches

Nimfa C. Vilches
Nimfa Cuesta Vilches
Born 6 October 1956(1956-10-06)
Leyte, Philippines
Nationality Filipino
Citizenship Filipino
Education Law
Alma mater Ateneo de Manila University, Ateneo Law School
Occupation Lawyer, Judge, Law School Professor, Court Administrator.
Employer Supreme Court of the Philippines

Nimfa Cuesta Vilches is a Senior Deputy Court Administrator (DCA) at the Office of the Court Administrator (OCA), Supreme Court of the Philippines. She was a regional trial court judge in Manila who was appointed to her current post by the Supreme Court in August 2008. Vilches is a family law expert in the Philippines and in the international legal community.

Contents

Profile

Born to lawyer-father, Benito R. Cuesta I, and an educator mother, Corazon Go, in Leyte, Philippines on October 6, 1956, Vilches graduated class valedictorian in elementary school and a Gerry Roxas Leadership and Scholarship Awardee in secondary school. She obtained her undergraduate degree of Bachelor of Arts in political science at the Jesuit-directed Ateneo de Manila University in 1978 and her Bachelor of Laws at the Ateneo Law School in 1982. Vilches is a member of the faculty of the Ateneo Law School and is a holder thereat of the Chief Justice Ramon Avancena Professorial Chair in Civil Law. She joined the Supreme Court after her admission to the practice of law in 1983 as Court Attorney to prominent Senior Justices Hermogenes Concepcion, Jr.; Jose Y. Feria; and Teodoro Padilla.

Vilches is the second of four daughters. She is married to Salvador C. Vilches, a mediation consultant, with whom she has two children- Beni Steve, System Analyst of Angelicum College and Gian Frances Nicole, executive assistant at the Office of the Court Administrator, Supreme Court of the Philippines.

In 1989, at the age of 32, Vilches was appointed Presiding Judge of the Municipal Trial Court of Barugo, Leyte, and was later designated by the Supreme Court as Acting Judge in the Metropolitan Trial Courts of Manila, Makati and Caloocan to address clogged court dockets until her appointment as Presiding Judge, Regional Trial Court of Manila, Branch 48, in 1999. In recognition of her notable performance as a regional trial court judge, the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), Supreme Court, nominated her to the post of Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals in 2004. On September 26, 2006, she was awarded Outstanding Regional Trial Court Judge by the Society for Judicial Excellence, Supreme Court, for exceptional performance as a magistrate for 17 years and for advancing the rights of women and children. She was promoted Assistant Court Administrator the following day September 27, 2006.

As Vice-Chairperson and chief implementer of the “Justice on Wheels,” an access to justice by the marginalized sectors program of the Supreme Court from 2008 to 2010, she organized the conduct of court hearings inside mobile court buses in faraway courts with no judges, and in urban courthouses with high criminal dockets, that lead to the release of 5,157 detained prisoners; and introduced the “mobile court-annexed mediation (MCAM)” initiative that brought about the successful settlement (with 96% success rate) of 6,830 pending civil cases.

Vilches, in 2005, ruled on the trailblazing case (Herrera v. Alba and Hon. Nimfa Cuesta Vilches, G.R. No. 148220, June 15, 2005) on the admissibility of DNA evidence in Philippine courts. The decision was affirmed in its entirety on appeal and was much quoted by the Supreme Court. That piece of verdict became one of the starting points of the 2007 Supreme Court Rule on DNA Evidence.

In 1999, Vilches founded the CASA-GAL Program in the Philippines composed of trained community volunteers for children in court that was chosen by UNICEF in 2005 as one of the innovative initiatives for children in Asia and the Pacific. For her outstanding service to the public, Vilches was conferred the 2009 Presidential Lingkod Bayan Award by the Civil Service Commission of the Philippines, the highest recognition given to a government official or employee.

Notable positions and achievements

Supreme Court


Academe

International lectures

  • Delegate, Philippine Delegation to the UN General Assembly Special Session on Children, New York, USA, 2003
  • Plenary lecturer, “Trafficking in Women and Children” and Session Chair, “Trafficking in Children,” 4th International Conference on Family Law and Children’s Rights, Cape Town, South Africa, 2003
  • Lecturer, Asian Conference of Social Work Professionals, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, 2003
  • Lecturer, “Making Juvenile Justice Work,” International Conference on Children’s Rights, University of Ottawa, Canada, 2007
  • Lecturer, “Phenomena in Juvenile Delinquency,” International Juvenile Justice Observatory (OIJJ), Seville, Spain, 2007
  • Lecturer, “Family Mediation,”1st Asian Mediation Association, Singapore, 2009
  • Lecturer, “No-Nonsense Court Management,” International Association of Court Administrators Asia-Pacific Conference, Bogor, Indonesia, March 13-16, 2011.


Works published

  • B.P. 22: FAQs, Rex Bookstore, 2005
  • Are You Ready To Be A CASA/GAL Volunteer? 2001
  • DNA and the Courts, 2002
  • Trafficking In Women and Children, 2003
  • Making Juvenile Justice Work, 2004
  • Mediation: Reaching its Potential in Family Law Cases, 2006
  • No Nonsense Court Management, 2007
  • RA 9184 or the Government Procurement Reform Act: Bane or Boon, 2008
  • ADR: The Solutionist Approach to Unclog Court Dockets, 2009

Scholarships and training

  • Oxford University, England, Children’s Rights: Moving Forward, sponsored by the British Council, 2001
  • Hertfordshire, England, Violence against Women: Tackling Trafficking, sponsored by the British Council, 2004
  • National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Nevada, Role of the Judge in a Family Court, sponsored by UNICEF Manila, 1999
  • National Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges, Nevada, Evidence in Family Court, sponsored by the Supreme Court of the Philippines and City of Manila, 2000
  • Legal and Social Systems of Sweden, sponsored by Swedish International Development Aid, 2005
  • National Judicial Institute of Canada, Vancouver and Kelowna, British Columbia, Evidence, sponsored by the Canadian International Development Aid, 2006
  • National Center for State Courts, Orlando Florida USA, Court Management, sponsored by the USAID and The Asia Foundation, 2007

References

External links


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