Ilocos court workers wear black, Baguio activists mount noise barrage

LAOAG CITY, Philippines – Court employees at the Marcos Hall of Justice in this Ilocos Norte provincial capital went to work on Monday wearing black shirts pinned with red ribbons, as they joined a nationwide protest against Malacañang’s threats to scrap the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF).

The employees said they would wear the protest colors again on July 28, during President Aquino’s fifth State of the Nation Address (Sona).

Lawyer Zaldy dela Cruz, a court employee, said the judiciary’s work force wanted to send the message that they should not be roped into Aquino’s displeasure over a Supreme Court ruling, which declared parts of the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) as unconstitutional.

“[The executive] should not bother the judiciary. The timing and the move of Congress to scrap our allowance is just awful,” Dela Cruz said, a reference to House Bill 4738, which has proposed to scrap the JDF, from which the courts source out benefits for its employees.

The measure was filed shortly after the President criticized the court’s DAP ruling in a public statements last week.

Executive Judge Philip Gabriel Salvador said wearing black showed their support for the Supreme Court.

“We have to make a stand against insinuations that the SC is vindictive. The truth is, the decision is based on laws and nothing else,” Salvador said.

“The JDF comes from the collection of the SC. About 80 percent of the total collection goes to the cost of living allowance (Cola) of all court personnel, while the 20 percent goes to equipment and other facilities,” Salvador said.

The court employees are also condemning a Bureau of Internal Revenue circular to tax employees’ benefits, including incentives sourced from the JDF.

Court employees get an average of P2,000 a month through the JDF, according to employees, while a certain percentage of the court fund is spent on the rehabilitation of court houses.

In Baguio City, activists belonging to transport group Piston and the Tongtongan ti Umili staged a noise barrage along downtown Baguio on Monday, a prelude to the city leg of protests scheduled for the day of President Aquino’s Sona.

Tracy Dumalo, one of the protesters, urged people who support the proposed impeachment of Aquino to wear the color peach during the Sona.

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