SC: Use of judiciary fund transparent

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has been transparent in its use of judicial funds, its spokesman reiterated yesterday.

As proof, lawyer Theodore Te cited the monthly, quarterly and annual reports on the judiciary budget, Special Allowances for Judges and Justices (SAJJ) and Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) found in the website of the high court.

“The reports on SAJJ, JDF have been in the website since 2012 and we’ve just been updating,” he said in a text message.

Te said the reports were made public when Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio became acting chief justice following the ouster of Chief Justice Renato Corona after an impeachment trial.

He said Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno decided to continue with the transparency policy.

The reports, which may be found via http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pio/accountabilityreports, are submitted to the Commission on Audit and Department of Budget and Management, he said.

The SC official issued the statement apparently in response to the challenge posed by Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr.

Belmonte has urged the high court to disclose to the public how it spent the P1.775-billion JDF amid moves from his colleagues to look into the disbursement of the discretionary allocation of the judicial branch.

Earlier, Te rebutted the claim of some administration congressmen that the JDF is similar to their pork barrel and the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) of the executive, which were both declared unconstitutional by the high court.

Observers see such move in the House to scrutinize judiciary’s fund as a retaliation to the high court’s rulings on the pork barrel and DAP.

“That action is expected,” a court insider commented.

In December last year, Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno explained that the JDF is not the same as the controversial pork barrel fund of the lawmakers.

The SC chief explained that JDF is “a special purpose fund established in 1984 under Presidential Decree No. 1949 for the benefit of the members and personnel of the judiciary to help ensure and guarantee the independence of the judiciary as mandated by the Constitution and public policy and required by the impartial administration of justice.”

She stressed that unlike pork barrel, the JDF is not discretionary as the law also requires that 80 percent of the fund “shall be used for cost of living allowances” while not more than 20 percent “shall be used for office equipment and facilities of the courts.”

The SC chief revealed that 80 percent component of the fund is released monthly to employees as cost of living allowances.

The 20 percent component, on the other hand, has an accumulated balance of P1.435 billion as of November last year, according to a report by the SC’s office of fiscal management and budget office.

Of this amount, P732.5 million has been earmarked for the construction of Court of Appeals buildings in Cebu and Cagayan de Oro and consultancy services for the electrical system of the high court in Manila. Another P620.7 million has been certified as available for various capital outlays of the court, including the procurement of computer sets, and construction and repair of court houses.

The SC chief even lamented that this 20 percent component of JDF, which amounts to P200 million per annum, is “barely enough for the court to source its budget for renovations, repairs and construction of halls of justice and for the various equipment needed for court operations.”