Judges, fiscals to continue receiving City Hall stipend

Judges, prosecutors and clerks of court in Cebu City will receive their allowances from the city government as soon as the City Council approves City Hall’s proposed supplemental budget, Mayor Michael Rama said yesterday.

Rama also gave assurances that the city’s senior citizens will get the second tranche of their cash assistance worth P2,000 each on Friday and Saturday in time for the opening of Senior Citizens Month in Cebu City this month.

At yesterday’s press conference, Rama confirmed City Administrator Jose Marie Poblete’s earlier statement that the City Council approved only half of the P24 million budget they sought to fund the allowances to judges, prosecutors and clerks of court.

Rama said he doesn’t think that the allowances will affect the judges’ independence as he frowned on a proposal by Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno that the Supreme Court should be the one to pay for the allowances of the members of the judiciary.

Rama likened the allocation of allowances to parents giving allowances to their children.

He said parents give allowances to their children because it is their obligation to do so.

“A judge’s work is not easy. Try being a lawyer for you to know how difficult it is to be a judge,” he said.

Corruption

Rama said local committees should allocate the allowances to the judges so the funding can be monitored locally.

“The Supreme Court is up there. They don’t know what’s going on below. Bring it down where many will be watching so people will be careful. There will be less corruption, it’s as simple as that,” he said.

The allowances for senior citizens, meanwhile, will be distributed on Friday in the city’s northern barangays and on Saturday for southern barangays.

“There are a little over 60,000 senior citizens who are already in the payroll for distribution of the P2,000 assistance,” said Rolando Llaguno, head of the Office of Senior Citizens Affairs (OSCA).

The city initially released P4,000 last March and will release the remaining P4,000 on the first week of December, Rama said.

Only those who were registered before the cut-off date last June, can receive the cash aid.

Llaguno also said they are continually “cleansing” their records of “unscrupulous elderly.”

He said they sought out an elderly person whose name was listed in three barangays and confronted him for receiving two payouts.

“We met. I told him that we can file charges against him. It’s the same as stealing. He apologized,” Llaguno said.

The Osca reconsidered its plan to press charges but the senior citizen was taken out of the list instead.

Rama also opposed a proposal by the Police Coordinating and Advisory Council (PCAC) to give allowances to police personnel based on their shooting skills proficiency.

Councilor Richard Osmeña based his proposal on a practice by his father, former vice mayor Renato Osmeña, to give allowances to policemen based on their performance and shooting proficiency.

Guidelines

PCAC head Eugene Elizalde said Osmeña will draft guidelines for the evaluation program.

“That’s wrong. Kana rabang hingigo, mangita sad nag ig-on (Sharpshooters will always look for targets). I don’t need policemen who are sharpshooters. What I need are brains that can think without having to use a gun,” Rama said.