Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te: We asked for e-court funds. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–The Supreme Court on Sunday debunked a statement by a Malacañang spokesperson who said that the judiciary did not ask for funds for its e-courts.
“The budget proposal of the Supreme Court clearly reflects the following items: P350 million for trial courts’ information technology infrastructure; P250 million for network security and connectivity; and P175 million for the Enterprise Information System Plan (EISP),” Supreme Court spokesman Theodore Te said in a statement.
Te said the high court also asked for P70 million to procure computers for data storage in the Hall of Justice in Angeles City and P46.3 million for a small claims case-monitoring system.
“The funds requested are for IT infra and connectivity which are needed for nationwide computerization. It’s the backbone needed for nationwide e-courts and other IT systems,” Te said.
In a press conference last Thursday, Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno said the executive branch did not give the judiciary a budget for e-courts. She also talked about the decreasing share of the judiciary in the national budget.
From 61 e-courts last year, the high tribunal will be targeting the creation by next year of 273 e-courts, which will handle about 25 percent of the total national caseload, Sereno said.
Deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte, speaking on government radio dzRB last Saturday, said the Supreme Court did not submit funding requests for e-courts for 2014 and 2015.
She did mention, however, that Malacañang knew about and supported the EISP, which aims to digitize Supreme Court processes to speed up the litigation of cases.
She said the data she had stated the EISP was to be implemented from 2010 to 2015 for P774.6 million.
“This was supported by the administration and whatever funding request for that, it was given,” Valte added.
In her press conference, Sereno said the high court was considering the proposals of law enforcement agencies to authorize the issuance of arrest warrants by electronic means.
“Law enforcement agencies have asked the Supreme Court to consider the issuance of e-warrants. This is being considered,” she said.
She said the high court was pilot-testing an e-subpoena system that was launched last April.
Additionally, two Quezon City regional trial courts are also using an automated hearings system where orders and resolutions are released real time, thus cutting litigation time since there is no more need for orders to be sent by mail.
“The use of an electronic system is to remove human intermediation, increase transparency, and minimize and reduce corruption,” Sereno said.
The high court asked for a P32.6-billion budget for 2015 but the executive branch slashed this by 30 percent to P20.28 billion.
Based on the budget proposal submitted by Malacañang to Congress, the judiciary’s budget for next year represented only 0.65 percent of the total proposed national budget of P2.606 trillion—the lowest percentage for the judiciary in many years.
In comparison, the judiciary’s P18.560 billion budget for the current year represented about 0.8 percent of the national budget.