Aquino wants judges’ fund deposited in nat’l treasury

MANILA, Philippines—President Benigno Aquino III wants the funds collected from court filing fees and used for the special allowances for judges (SAJ) to be remitted to the national treasury so they can be adequately evaluated and augmented if needed.

He also asked the Supreme Court to shed light on the status of the funds.

Mr. Aquino made the call after he witnessed the signing of a memorandum of agreement (MOA) between the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) and the country’s judges’ associations.

Under the MOA, the DBM will release almost P108 million to close the gap between the salaries of judges and other government employees that got pay increases through the third tranche of the salary standardization law.

“I call on the Supreme Court to be transparent and fair in the administration and use of the collections for the (special allowances for the judiciary),” President Aquino said in his speech during the MOA signing between Budget Secretary Florencio Abad and the judges’ associations.

“What is the true state of these funds? Is this enough so that the full SAJ will be received by the judges?” he asked.

President Aquino said he hopes the Supreme Court will make a clear, proper and justifiable use of the funds.

He noted that after judges became the first to get a 100 percent pay increase through the enactment of the law that provided for the SAJ in 2003, their salaries began to lag behind those of other public servants when salaries were increased starting in 2009 because of the salary standardization law.

“For the sake of the judges’ sacrifice and dedication to their duties, we needed to make sure that the situation would be made equitable,” he added.

Thus, Mr. Aquino said, the DBM proposed to appropriate almost P108 million to fix the deficit between the judges’ salaries and those of other public servants.

“This means the SAJ that the judges received before would again be availed of in its entirety,” President Aquino said.

Mr. Aquino said the MOA between the DBM and the judges is only a temporary solution to the pay discrepancy, adding that the real solution lies with Congress and the Supreme Court.