Lower courts lack judges due to low, unattractive pay

One of four lower courts across the country has remained without a permanent judge since last year as a result of the scant budget that the judiciary has been receiving from the national government, the Supreme Court said.

Jose Midas Marquez, the high court’s spokesperson and administrator, said the unattractive financial packages for judges in the first and second level courts had discouraged “brilliant” lawyers from joining the judiciary.

While there were enough applicants for the vacancies, he said most of them lacked “qualifications” since they had flunked the bar examinations at least thrice.

“It’s very difficult to include applicants who have taken the bar (exams) three or four times because that says something about their academic credentials,” Marquez said.

“So as much as possible, we exclude them from being considered. Of course, we want only the best to be appointed to those vacancies,” he added.

At present, he said judges handling at least 300 cases in metropolitan trial courts, municipal trial courts and municipal circuit trial courts receive a monthly salary of “only” P60,000 plus P20,000 in allowances.

On the other hand, judges of regional trial courts get P70,000 a month on top of P25,000 in allowances.

“Judges in the first level courts should have a five-year experience as a law practitioner. With the meager salaries of judges, it’s understandable why only a handful of law practitioners want a job loaded with problems,” he said.

Marquez added: “Right now, a young lawyer working for law firms in Makati City can easily earn P100,000 a month after a few years.”

To address this inadequacy, Marquez said the high tribunal had been designating pairing judges and acting presiding judges to resolve pending court cases.

“When we do that, it’s only in an acting capacity. It was never to supplant the prerogative of President Aquino to appoint judges on a permanent basis,” he said.