JELAC asked to settle judiciary budget row

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday said it is willing to sit down with the Palace and Congress to settle the controversy arising from the move of the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to impose conditions for the release of P2 billion from the judiciary’s proposed P15-billion budget for next year.

Chief Justice Renato Corona has supported the call of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago for the Judicial Executive and Legislative Advisory Council (JELAC) to convene to settle the issue on the judiciary’s fiscal autonomy that is being challenged by DBM’s proposal to place the P2-billion budget under the new item in the national budget called the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF).

SC spokesman and court administrator Midas Marquez said Corona agrees with Santiago that JELAC could be a good venue for dialogue between the three branches of government to address conflict and prevent a possible constitutional crisis.

Marquez said the SC wants the issue discussed not just with the Palace but also with Congress. Once convened, the JELAC would have Corona sitting down with President Aquino, Vice President Jejomar Binay, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

“The Supreme Court has always been open to a dialogue. Even on this year’s budget where there was an earlier issue on unpaid salaries and allowances of judges, it was the court that initiated a dialogue with DBM,” he said.

The SC official believes it is important that Aquino is properly informed on the issue and not just being fed with “sanitized information” by his officials.

Marquez likewise called on presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda, his deputy Abigail Valte and other officials of the Aquino administration to be more prudent in issuing statements.

“The issue of fiscal autonomy is far from settled, contrary to what Lacierda and Valte say. Maybe (it’s) settled among themselves, yes. But certainly not with the judiciary and the constitutional commissions whose respective budgets they continue to play with,” he stressed.

“Perhaps Lacierda, Valte, and others who speak out of turn, with all due respect to them, should learn as well a lesson or two in inter-branch comity and courtesy,” he said.

Santiago, over the weekend, also cautioned Lacierda to be more circumspect in issuing statements and avoid putting the President in a compromising position.

Citing the case of Bengzon vs. Drilon in 1992, Marquez said jurisprudence clearly shows that placing part of the judiciary’s budget under MPBF is a violation of the constitutional provisions on the judiciary’s fiscal autonomy, “which lawyers Lacierda and Valte should have known had they been doing their assignment.”

“Are we going to allow the executive and legislative departments to change this now – just because P-Noy is President and Corona whom they do not like as chief justice is Chief Justice? Has the Supreme Court ceased to be the final interpreter of the Constitution?” he asked.

Getting personal

Immediately, Lacierda hit back and accused Marquez of misleading Corona.

“Maybe Chief Justice Corona was not informed by the spokesperson that the (fiscal autonomy) issue has been settled with the legislature,” the presidential spokesman said in a news briefing at Malacañang yesterday.

He also called Marquez, a court administrator who carries the rank of a justice just like a Court of Appeals magistrate, as mere “attorney Marquez.”

“By the way, he’s not a justice. He is attorney Midas Marquez. I recognize his rank as a justice but he cannot be called a justice. His rank is at the level of a CA justice but he is not allowed to be called a justice. He cannot be called Justice Midas Marquez,” an obviously piqued Lacierda clarified.

The Palace official said they are open to convening the JELAC and let it not be said that they were not open to having any dialogue with the judiciary.

“We’d like to emphasize that we have always been open to holding a dialogue with the judiciary and, in fact, we did hold a dialogue with the judiciary and let it not be ignored the fact that we’ve done that last year; we are prepared to do it this year,” he said.

However, he insisted that the fiscal autonomy impasse had been resolved already, as far as the Palace is concerned.

Just like Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Lacierda tossed the task of approving the annual national budget, which may include budget cuts, to Congress.

“The executive department proposes, and Congress disposes,” Lacierda reminded the public. “The legislature is the one that is going to approve or disapprove the budget, and so that is something that we leave also with the legislative branch.”

He said that when a particular office is asking for a budget on unfilled positions, there’s an expectation that the position will be filled.

“We gave you money for that position, we expect you to fill that position and that’s the purpose of the MPBF. And so it is not improper for us, it is not unreasonable for the executive branch, to ask for accountability because that’s the whole purpose of our (being), one of the promises that the Aquino administration made when we came to power,” Lacierda maintained.

Accountability

Abad affirmed the position of the Palace that the judiciary should be accountable to the legislative department once it fails to comply with the qualifications made by the executive branch for its proposed budget for 2012.

The DBM chief noted that the judiciary is protesting three of the four qualifications they wanted for the capital outlay to be released – for it to fill up vacant positions, unspent funds should be returned to national treasury and quarterly reporting.

He said the judiciary cannot be given special treatment on such, especially because these policies “apply to everybody in government” – which means all three branches and instrumentalities of government, no matter how small.

“The judiciary said they may report it, but I say they should,” Abad told reporters at the Philippine International Convention Center in Pasay City, where Aquino was the keynote speaker of the event organized by the National Anti-Poverty Commission.

The judiciary, according to him, has never reported how it spent its money. “It’s so basic in expenditure management that everything has to be reported to the people,” he explained further.

But he said the judiciary was still “answerable” to Congress, which he stressed has created an oversight committee co-chaired by Sen. Franklin Drilon to oversee this matter.

Evardone: Hold your horses

At the House of Representatives, Eastern Samar Rep. Ben Evardone said President Aquino should now consider the proposal to convene the JELAC to “stave off possible constitutional crisis and gridlock among the three coequal branches of the government.”

Aurora Rep. Juan Edgardo Angara also welcomed Corona’s support for the proposal.

“I think it’s a good idea to thresh out various concerns and consider possible solutions. Certainly, it’s preferable to the verbal sniping happening right now,” he said.

Evardone also defended the decision of Aquino and the House to strictly monitor the use of public funds, including those allocated for the filling of vacancies in the judiciary.

“While the tirade of Chief Justice Corona against Malacañang and Congress is understandable, we can’t also surrender the constitutional duty of Congress to appropriate funds and ensure that they are used for the purposes for which they are appropriated,” he said.

Marikina Rep. Miro Quimbo said the leaders of the three branches of the government should come together to discuss their differences.

Brillantes: Can’t touch this

In a related development, the Commission on Elections (Comelec) is opposed to the plan of Malacañang to seize the unspent budget of constitutional bodies for unfilled positions.

Comelec Chairman Sixto Brillantes said constitutional agencies like the poll body enjoy fiscal autonomy that is provided for under the Constitution.

“We can give you the list of unfilled positions but it is our discretion (how we should spend the budget). We’ll just provide you a list to monitor but our autonomy should be upheld,” he said.

Brillantes noted the Comelec would appoint people to vacant posts “without asking their permission.”

“I think that should be the case. That is our money,” said the poll chief, who admitted that the Comelec has some P164 million in unspent funds for vacant positions.

Under Article IX Section 5 of the 1987 Constitution, agencies like the Comelec, Civil Service Commission and the Commission on Audit have fiscal autonomy.

Brillantes added the Comelec is studying the possibility of earmarking a part of the unspent budget to acquire their own building.

At present, the poll body is leasing three floors of the Palacio del Gobernador building in Intramuros, Manila for its head office, among other facilities that the agency is renting.

He maintained that the Comelec would save more if it would have its own building to house its offices. – Jess Diaz, Delon Porcalla, Sheila Crisostomo