Employees of the judiciary wore red and black to protest the Aquino administration’s bullying moves against them. Photo by Tetch Torres-Tupas/INQUIRER.net
MANILA, Philippines—Employees of the judiciary called President Benigno Aquino III to reveal how the over P100-billion Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) was spent instead of bullying the judiciary after the Supreme Court declared it as unconstitutional.
“The President and his henchmen responsible for DAP should instead account for DAP. The people, including the government employees, deserve to know how it was spent, what projects and who benefited from the projects, lay down the supporting documents and present the actual result of the expenditures,” Maurino Aguilar, Vice President of the Judiciary Employees Association of the Philippines said Monday.
Employees of the judiciary wore red and black as a sign of protest against the administration. The protest came following Aquino’s speech which threatened the Judiciary and moves to impound the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF).
Although Malacañang has distanced itself from the moves against the JDF, its allies in Congress have actively been pushing to repeal Presidential Decree (PD) 1949 or the law creating the JDF and called the Commission on Audit to conduct a special audit on the JDF.
Under PD 1949, the exclusive power and duty to approve and authorize disbursements and expenditures of the JDF is vested in the Chief Justice. In that sense alone, the JDF is considered discretionary funds in nature, since it is administered by a particular public official and disbursed for public purpose.
The JDF law mandates that “The fund shall be used to augment the allowances of the members and personnel of the Judiciary and to finance acquisition, maintenance and repair of office equipment and facilities, provided that at least 80 percent of the fund shall be used for cost of living allowances, and not more than 20 percent of the said fund shall be used for office equipment and facilities of the courts located wherever the legal fees are collected.”
The said fund shall come from the docket and other legal fees paid by party litigants.
“JDF is not pork barrel. There is monthly accounting on where the fund goes. We are government of laws and not of men,” Amiel De Vera, President of the Court of Appeals Employees Association.
“If they want the JDF to go straight to the DBM (Department of Budget and Management), fiscal autonomy will disappear and under the Constitution, the judiciary has a fiscal autonomy,” Rene Enciso, President of the Supreme Court Association of Lawyers-Employees (Scale) said.
The court employees also denounced the Bureau of Internal Revenue Memorandum 23-2014 that imposes additional tax deductions on the benefits received by employees.
“We receive very measly salary and we are relying on our benefits to meet our needs,” Jojo Guerrero,
On Thursday, they will challenge the BIR regulation before the Supreme Court.
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Court workers to wear black, red in protest