Under the Revised Guidelines for Continuous Trial of Criminal Cases (A.M. No. 15-06-10-SC), a court is supposed to set arraignment within ten (10) calendar days from the date it receives the case if the accused is detained, or within thirty (30) calendar days from the date it acquires jurisdiction over the accused’s person if the accused is not detained. In practice, arraignment often gets pushed later than that because of court congestion, unresolved motions, or delays in serving notice — but the rules sharply limit how many postponements either side can ask for once a date is set.
Clients who have just been charged — or whose case has just been filed in court — almost always ask the same question first: when will arraignment actually happen? The short legal answer is that the Revised Guidelines for Continuous Trial of Criminal Cases (A.M. No. 15-06-10-SC), issued by the Supreme Court, set specific outer limits. The honest practical answer is that real dockets do not always keep to those limits, and it helps to understand both the rule and the reasons it slips.
The Official Timeline: 10 Days or 30 Days
Once the court has acquired jurisdiction over the accused’s person — through arrest or voluntary surrender — the Continuous Trial Guidelines require the judge to set arraignment and pre-trial together, within:
- Ten (10) calendar days from the date the court receives the case, if the accused is detained; or
- Thirty (30) calendar days from the date the court acquires jurisdiction over the accused, if the accused is not detained (that is, out on bail or on recognizance).
The judge is required to write the arraignment date directly into the commitment order (for a detained accused) or into the order granting bail (for anyone else), so the date is fixed early rather than left to be calendared later. This detained/non-detained distinction exists because a person in custody has a much sharper interest in a prompt resolution — every extra week in detention is a week of liberty lost even before guilt is proven.
What Has to Happen Before the Clock Even Starts
The 10-day and 30-day counters do not start the moment a complaint is filed with the prosecutor. Several steps come first:
- Preliminary investigation (for offenses that require one) must run its course at the prosecutor’s office, resulting in a resolution finding probable cause.
- The Information is filed in court, formally commencing the criminal case.
- The judge conducts a personal evaluation of the prosecutor’s resolution and the evidence to determine probable cause for purposes of issuing a warrant of arrest (or, in cases where a warrant is not necessary, to proceed with the case).
- The court acquires jurisdiction over the accused’s person — through actual arrest, voluntary surrender, or posting of bail. This is the trigger date for the 10-day or 30-day period, not the date the Information was filed.
In practice, the preliminary investigation stage is usually the slowest part of the whole process and can take months on its own, well before a case even reaches a trial court judge. Once the case is in court and jurisdiction over the person is acquired, though, the Continuous Trial Guidelines are meant to move quickly.
Why Arraignment Sometimes Takes Longer in Practice
Despite the rule, arraignment dates slip for a number of recurring reasons:
- Court congestion. Many first- and second-level courts, especially in urban centers, carry heavy dockets, and a 10- or 30-day target can be difficult to hit purely on volume.
- Difficulty serving notice or securing the accused’s appearance. If the accused cannot be located, has not posted bail, or has pending motions on the warrant, the case cannot move to arraignment.
- Motions filed before arraignment. A motion to quash the Information, a motion for reinvestigation, or a petition for review pending with the Department of Justice can effectively pause the schedule while the court resolves the threshold issue.
- Judicial determination of probable cause taking time. If the judge is not immediately satisfied that probable cause exists from the record, additional evidence may be required before a warrant issues, which pushes back the date the court acquires jurisdiction over the accused in the first place.
- Multiple accused or multiple counsel. Cases with several co-accused, each represented by different counsel, are harder to align on a single arraignment date.
Postponements Are Deliberately Hard to Get
One of the biggest changes the Continuous Trial Guidelines introduced was to sharply restrict postponements once a hearing date — including arraignment — is set. As a general rule, a motion for postponement is prohibited, except where it is based on acts of God, force majeure, or the physical inability of a witness to appear and testify. Even then, the guidelines require the moving party to pay a postponement fee and attach the official receipt to the motion before the clerk of court can even accept it. This is a deliberate design choice: the drafters wanted to end the old practice of routine, serial postponements that used to stretch simple cases out for years before arraignment and trial even began in earnest.
What Happens at Arraignment Itself
Arraignment is the stage where the accused is formally informed of the charge, in a language or dialect they understand, and enters a plea. Under the Continuous Trial Guidelines, pre-trial is set to happen on the very same occasion as arraignment (unless the accused wants to first explore a plea bargain or intends to plead guilty to a lesser offense, in which case a short additional period may be allowed). This merger of arraignment and pre-trial into a single proceeding is itself part of what makes the 10-day/30-day scheduling target achievable — the court is not trying to calendar two separate hearings, only one.
If Your Case Seems to Be Taking Longer Than the Rule Allows
If months have passed since a case was filed and jurisdiction over the accused was acquired, with no arraignment date in sight, that delay is worth raising with counsel. Depending on the cause of the delay, remedies can range from a simple motion to set the case for arraignment, to invoking the constitutional right to a speedy trial or speedy disposition of cases if the delay is unjustified and prejudicial. The Continuous Trial Guidelines exist precisely to give both the accused and the prosecution a concrete benchmark to point to when a case has stalled without good reason.
Frequently Asked Questions
How soon must arraignment be set if the accused is in detention? Within ten (10) calendar days from the date the court receives the case, under the Revised Guidelines for Continuous Trial of Criminal Cases. The judge is required to write this date directly into the commitment order.
Does the 30-day period start from when the case is filed in court? No. It starts from the date the court acquires jurisdiction over the accused’s person — through arrest, voluntary surrender, or posting bail — which can be later than the date the Information was actually filed.
Can the defense or prosecution simply ask to move the arraignment date? Only in limited circumstances. The Continuous Trial Guidelines generally prohibit postponement motions except for acts of God, force majeure, or a witness’s physical inability to appear, and even those require payment of a postponement fee before the motion can be accepted.
Is pre-trial held on a separate date from arraignment? Usually not. The Continuous Trial Guidelines direct courts to hold pre-trial immediately after arraignment on the same date, except when the accused wants to explore a plea bargain or plead guilty to a lesser offense first.
This commentary is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. For guidance specific to your situation, please consult a licensed attorney.
If you have questions about your rights or options under Philippine law, our firm is available to assist. You may reach us via Viber or WhatsApp, call us at 0995 433 5550, or send an email to vivasnobles@gmail.com. We look forward to hearing from you.