SC wants restrictions on fund use scrapped

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has asked the House of Representatives to scrap several restrictions proposed by the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) on the use of certain funds for the judiciary.

The funds include P2.4 billion for maintenance and other operating expenses (MOOE) of lower courts and P4.1 billion in allocations for 10,385 unfilled positions.

The restrictions are contained in the proposed P26.675-billion judiciary budget for next year.

In a letter to the House appropriations committee, Deputy Court Administrator Raul Villanueva, who heads the 2016 judiciary budget committee, sought the removal of five special provisions mandating the use of billions to fill vacant court positions.

Some P3.988 billion is included in the judiciary budget for 9,914 job vacancies in the Supreme Court, regional trial courts and other lower courts.

For the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET), which is also the Supreme Court, there is an allocation of P49 million for 95 vacant posts, while the Sandiganbayan has P23.8 million for 50 unfilled jobs.

The Court of Appeals has P97 million for 247 vacancies, while the Court of Tax Appeals has P33.8 million for 79 vacant positions.

The five similarly worded DBM-proposed restrictions provide that the amounts allocated for the filling of vacancies be used to hire judges and other court personnel.

The provisions further mandate that unused allocations shall revert to the national government’s general fund at the end of the budget year.

Budget Secretary Florencio Abad has told the appropriations committee that the special provisions aim to encourage the judiciary to hire additional judges and other personnel and discourage it from using funds for the filling of vacancies for more allowances and other benefits.

He said the judiciary lacks judges and the shortage requires some judges to preside over courts other than their own.

An appropriations committee member said if the proposed restrictions were lifted, the judiciary would be able to use billions for vacancies for additional allowances.

He noted that in the Commission on Audit report on compensation in the bureaucracy for 2014, SC justices received a total of P4 million to P6.3 million in basic pay, allowances and other emoluments.

Of those amounts, only P1 million was basic salary and the rest was in the form of allowances, he said.

“They paid themselves P1 million in allowances as PET members. That was on top of what they received in allowances as justices,” he said.