Cebu court employees not joining mass leave over allowances

CEBU CITY — Court employees here are not joining their Metro Manila counterparts in going on mass leave tomorrow to protest low allowances and benefits they are getting from the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF).

Belinda Go, vice president for the Visayas of the Philippine Association of Court Employees, said they have forged an agreement with Regional Trial Court Executive Judge Pampio Abarintos not to involve themselves in mass actions that could only worsen the already gritty impeachment issue.

Some officials of the various court employees’ organizations in Cebu said they have yet to take a stand on the issue but clarified that their argument has nothing to do with the impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.

On condition of anonymity, they said their stand rests solely on the restoration of their benefits and increase of their salaries.

They said they earlier opted to remain silent since they never wanted to become part of the controversy, adding that "we are Cebuanos."

They said they chose to be passive, as yet, despite the proddings of their counterparts in Metro Manila to be vocal on the issue of salaries and benefits.

They, however, expressed disappointment over the seemingly unfair treatment given to them by the media and the public in general who had tagged them as selfish for not taking an active role on the issue.

Go, for her part, admitted that majority of them is not contented with the allowances they have been receiving from the JDF, claiming that their allowances decreased when Davide assumed office.

She, however, could not provide figures, but said they used to receive amelioration benefits, medical and educational allowances every year before Davide’s term.

Go said the court employees are demanding that they be also given a salary increase just like what the judges recently received.

Even then, Go said they are not in favor of the impeachment complaint against Davide since they don’t see it as the only way to ferret out the truth behind the alleged mishandling of the JDF.

Go said they are instead pushing for an in-depth investigation by the House of Representatives, at the committee level.

Their Manila counterparts have given them documents showing that Davide had allegedly spent more of the JDF on infrastructure projects of the Supreme Court rather than allocating the intended percentage to employees’ allowances, Go said. — Freeman News Service