Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio Photo by Lyn Rillon
Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio got “pogi or brownie points” from Malacañang Wednesday.
Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said that a “new regime of transparency” was now reigning in the Supreme Court after it posted on its website for the first time its budgetary accountability report as well as that of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal.
“A shroud of secrecy has been lifted,” Lacierda said. “A new regime of transparency has been ushered in the Supreme Court.”
He said the Palace commended Carpio “for directing the posting of the accountability reports online,” calling the move “a step in the right direction for transparency and accountability in government.”
“Being official documents, the public has the right to know, in the same way that government agencies have the responsibility to disclose, how public funds are allocated and spent,” Lacierda said. “This can only result in the strengthening of our people’s trust in the judiciary.”
Carpio’s move followed criticism by the Palace of the nondisclosure of the court budget under then Chief Justice Renato Corona, who was ousted last month.
Carpio is the most senior justice of the Supreme Court and is among those nominated in the Judicial and Bar Council as a possible Chief Justice. Four other senior justices of the court have been nominated for the post.