Sereno not getting special attention from Aquino – Abad

Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and other Supreme Court justices meets with Budget Secretary Butch Abad who visited the SC for the first time. PHOTO/SC-PIO.

MANILA, Philippines—Budget Secretary Florencio Abad dispelled speculations that his presence at the Supreme Court indicated that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is getting special attention from President Benigno Aquino III.

“We do this [visit to every government agency] to every department that invites us,” Abad told reporters Wednesday after meeting with the Chief Justice and 11 other high court justices.

This is the first time that the Budget Secretary visited the Supreme Court. In the past years, the executive and the judiciary have been bickering over budget allotment.

“This [judiciary] is under new leadership [and] she wants to be familiar with the budget process,” Abad said.

While Abad said there were concerns raised about next year’s budget, he  refused to give details on how the budget discussion went or what were discussed during the meeting. He only said the meeting was “open, cordial and frank discussion.”

Abad said the judiciary’s budget for next year is P15.7 billion. The budget is lower than the judiciary’s proposed budget of P19,239,215 billion. The judiciary’s proposed budget is 38.12 percent higher than last year’s budget of P13,929,575,000.

Abad added that the high court justices also welcomed their proposed digitization of the judiciary.

“They were very positive about it [but] we were not down to pesos,” Abad said referring to digitization budget.

One of these suggested initiatives by the DBM is the creation of an online system that will publish the aging of cases and provide updated information on which sala a particular case is lodged.

“This way, anyone can check the status of their cases online and monitor the progress from there, without having to make multiple visits or phone calls to a judge’s office. In addition, it will be quicker and easier to identify which cases are taking too long to resolve, so that the judicial system can pursue measures to hasten the resolution of long-standing cases,” Abad said.

The DBM proposes the creation of an internal and integrated Human Resources (HR) and payroll management system in the Supreme Court and other government offices; the adoption of an initiative similar to the Government Integrated Financial Management and Information System (GIFMIS), which will allow the judiciary to keep tabs on allocations and disbursements across the court system.

The DBM also wants the high court to maintain a more active and responsive online presence, particularly within its own website, as well as in social networks and other interaction-driven media.

Aside from Sereno, 11 other justices were present during the meeting. Only Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justice Arturo Brion were absent.