SC didn’t ask for e-court funding–Palace

Video by Ryan Leagogo/INQUIRER.net

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court did not ask for funds for its electronic courts (e-courts) for 2014 and 2015, Malacañang said Saturday.

The Palace statement came after Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno said that the executive branch had deleted the request from the high court’s proposed budget.

In a press conference on August 28, Sereno said the key reform programs in the judiciary, including the creation of more electronic courts, were threatened by a lack of funds from the government.

Sereno claimed that the e-courts would expedite proceedings and decongest the dockets, adding this will also reduce corruption.

She said the judiciary had asked for a P32-billion budget but the DBM cut this to about P20.25 billion when it was presented to Congress.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, however, said Malacanang reviewed the Department of Budget and Management’s records and found out that the high court did not request for funds for the e-courts.

“There is no funding request in the budget they submitted for fiscal year 2014-2015 on electronic courts,” she said on state-run dzRB radio.

She said the Aquino government funded the Enterprise Information Systems Plan (EISP) project of the judiciary, which was aimed to hasten court litigations.

The clash between the Executive and the Judiciary started when the Supreme Court declared as unconstitutional the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP).

President Benigno Aquino III earlier called the high court “meddlesome.”

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