Court employees wear red; clarifying document on impeachment

Court employees in Negros Occidental pushed through their plan for a mass leave yesterday "to give government a little time to address their grievances."

While they also demanded a "true and full disclosure of accounts in the disbursement of the Judiciary Development Fund," protest leaders also warned that politicians should not ride on the impeachment issue against Chief Justice Hilario Davide.

Rainerio Tolentino, president of the Coalition of Trial Court Employees (CORTE), hopes to cripple court proceedings with their planned protest action.

Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Pepito Gellada, whoever, said he made sure that or two employees will not join the protest action to ensure that court proceedings are not paralyzed.

Davide Memo To President, Speaker

Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye recently asked the House to go over the Commission on Audit report on the JDF (Judiciary Development Fund). Strange that such proposal was aired only the other day.

Based on a copy of a letter purportedly signed by Chief Justice Hilario Davide, the COA report had been submitted to the House Justice committee way back in September.

Not only that. The members of the committee, especially Rep. Felix William Fuentebella had required the chief and an accountant of the Supreme Court’s fiscal management and budget office to submit and "certify under oath," not later than Sept. 4 the JDF collections of the Court of Appeals and of inferior courts for fiscal years 2000 to 2002. The same with JDF remittances from the Court of Appeals and inferior courts covering the same years, JDF collections and expenditures for the same years and sources and amount of expenditures for the same years on the following items: renovation of session hall and Baguio facilities, chairs, foreign travels, publication of books, cars or utility vehicles.

They were also invited to the committee hearing on Sept. 9.

Even COA’s State Auditor Cecilia Caga-anan, assigned to the judiciary, was required by Fuentebella to submit a "statement of source and accounts of expenditures, including vouchers and supporting documents on the following items: SC-CA multipurpose hall, SC motorcycle acquisition program, cash gifts of personnel (SC-CA-Sandiganbayan personnel compared to lower courts by rank of salary grade), and purchase of Toyota Camrys and other motor vehicles.

Davide cited other purportedly questionable and inquisitorial actuations by the committee.

That, pointed out Davide, shows that the "investigation being conducted brings the inquiry far beyond the intended purpose of the Resolution and create a dangerous precedent in investigations in aid of legislation.

He cited the "obvious disregard of the rules relative to such category of investigation."

More than that, Davide contended, they constitute a direct assault on the independence of the Judiciary, infringe on the Supreme Court’s fiscal autonomy, and cause an irreparable breach of the separation of powers.

He also warned that a member of the House may also file a resolution to investigate in aid of legislation on how the President of the Philippines manages or disburses the funds allotted to the Executive Branch and to produce before a congressional committee the vouchers, documents, or records related thereto.

"Another member of the House or even a taxpayer in proper cases, may do the same in regard to the expenditures of the House of Representatives and the Office of the Speaker and require the Speaker to produce the vouchers of the expenditures under the CDF or CIA of the representatives or even of the district offices of the representatives."

The same could be done by a member of the House as regards to the Senate and call for the investigation in aid of legislation. The same could be done by a member of the Senate against the House or any of its members, Davide pointed out.

Regarding the claim that 80 percent of the JDF shall be used for cost of living allowances, and not more than 20 percent shall be used for office equipment and facilities of the courts where the legal fees are collected, the audit report by the COA shows that it has not violated the provision.

It was also pointed out that courts do not register the same amount of JDF collected simply because, "while increases in legal fees are uniformly applied all throughout the country, the amount collected depends upon the number of cases filed in any judicial area and the amounts involved in these cases."

Anent also Sec. 1 of RD No. 1949 should be interpreted in such a way that the 80 percent component of the JDF for cost of living allowances should likewise be distributed in areas where it is collected," such interpretation would only result in disparities in the grant of allowances.

On that basis, court employees in Camarines Sur would receive an average allowance of only P386 per month, while those in the NCR courts will receive P7,202.50 per month.

This still inevitably "result in inequitable distribution of the JDF in contravention of the true intent of the law and to the prejudice of the administration of justice," Davide pointed out.

The letter is voluminous; the arguments are clear and understandable. The question is that the President and the Speaker of the House should have had enough time to prevent a constitutional crisis. Have they acted on time to avert such a possibility.

Well, the situation has deteriorated. The implications are too difficult to predict.

Mourning A ‘Freak’ Piglet

All Saints’ Day observance was marred in Negros Occidental with the death of three persons in a vehicular mishap that also injured 27 others in Kabankalan City, 84 kilometers south of Bacolod.

There were three other fatalities in stabbing incidents in Bacolod.

But interest centered on the death of "Kikay."

Who was "Kikay"? It was a monkey-looking piglet born to a liter of 13 others on Friday in Talisay City.

The mother was a sow, named Liza, owned by Gil and Delia Antonares of barangay Zone 5 in Talisay City.

"Kikay" caught the attention of neighbors as well as television viewers because she looked like a monkey with a two-inch beard and fully developed eyelashes and eyebrows.

Weighting one-and-a-half-kilo, Kikay, for a time, attracted attention when she had to be bottle-fed with milk, her snout flipping over her foreheads as he sucked on the nipple.

But the freak piglet did not live long. It died one day later. The couple and their two children cried when "Kikay" died. Her shrill bird-like sound sounded its last Friday morning. It never oinked as piglets should.

The ironic spectacle – neighbors attended the wake for Kikay and held a "bilasyon" at the Antonares residence. Just like a wake for a human being. She lived for only one day, but the hearts of the barangay residents were captivated by the piglet.