The Court’s Judiciary Devt fund reports

This refers to the column of Mr. Jarius Bondoc that ran in the Philippine STAR today (Gotcha, “Is SC ‘Fitting’ to Rule on ‘Pork Petitions?,” Nov. 18) adverting to a letter by former Sen. Rene Saguisag on the Court’s supposed “silence on the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF)” and equating such supposed “silence” with the Court’s “capability to rule on Malacañang’s secret discretionary lump sums.” As a factual matter relevant to Mr. Bondoc’s widely-read column, may we point out that as of August  2013, the following reports were already uploaded to the SC website under the folder “Public Information” and sub-folder “Transparency and Accountability” (for ease of reference, the link to the folder is http://sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pio/accountabilityreports/)

2012 Quarterly Reports on the SAJ (link is at https/docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A//sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pio/accountabilityreports/SAJ%202012.pdf);

2012 Quarterly Reports on the JDF (link is at https//docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A//sc.judciary.gov.ph.pio/accountabilityreports/JDF%202012.pdf);

2013 First Quarter Report on the JDF and SAJ (link is at https//docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A//sc.judiciary.gov.ph/pio/accountabilityreports/JDF%20AND%208AJ%202013%20QI.pdf), and

 2013 Second Quarter Report on the JDF and SAJ (link is at https://docs.google.com/viewer?url=http%3A//sc.judiciary .gov.ph/pio/accountabilityreports/JDF%20AND%208AJ%20201%20Q2.pdf).

Your readers may also be interested in the Budget Accountability Reports that appear under the same folder. This information was presented to Congress as part of the Court’s proposal for increases in the Judiciary’s budget during the budget deliberations this year and is a matter of official record. The reports for the remaining quarters of 2012 as far as JDF and SAJ will be made available in the same manner as soon as they are available.

We respect Mr. Bondoc’s views and those of former Senator Saguisag but, in the interest of fairness and because Mr. Bondoc’s column is widely read and may thus create a misimpression if this fact is not corrected, we would request that the SC has made available these reports in most transparent manner possible — by posting them directly to the website where everyone may have access to them, directly — be disseminated by asking that this letter be directly published by the STAR in your Letters-to-the-Editor section in time for the oral argument on the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), on Nov. 19 (today).