Councilors not keen on increase of allowance for clerks of court

CEBU, Philippines - Cebu City Acting Mayor Joy Augustus Young said the City may not grant the P25,000-monthly allowance asked by each of the four clerks of the Court of Appeals if they cannot justify the increase they have requested.

“As long as it can be justified, okay ra. We also have to look at how much we are giving to others like judges and fiscals,” Young told The FREEMAN.

But Councilor Margarita “Margot” Osmeña, chairperson of the City Council’s Committee on Budget and Finance, said the matter should be discussed by the City Council although she is afraid that it might be used as precedence once the city would grant such an increase.

Some city legislators who requested anonymity said the amount requested by the four clerks of courts of the Court of Appeals-Visayas is too high.

These clerks of courts are currently receiving P8,000-monthly allowance but they are now moving to get three times as much.

The clerks of courts are in-charge of the administrative and operational matters in court. There are three divisions of the Court of Appeals based in Cebu City whose jurisdictions include the other places in the three regions of the Visayas.

Aside from the clerks of the three divisions whose judicial ranking is equivalent to that of a municipal trial court judge, there is another clerk that supervises the three of them.

Those who requested additional monthly allowance from the city are lawyers Lucila Cad-Enjambre, Mercedita Dadole-Ygnacio, Joseph Stephen Ygnacio and May Faith Trumata-Rebotia.

Mayor Michael Rama is still in Xiamen, China and could not be reached for comment about the matter. In their letter-request to City Hall, the four clerks of court failed to justify their request. — (FREEMAN)