Some court personnel to wear black to fight scrapping of JDF

CEBU, Philippines - Though there were no directives from their national organization to wear black as a sign of protest, Belinda Go, the president of the Court Stenographic Reporters Association of the Philippines (COSTRAPHIL), said she and other Cebu employees will be wearing black on Monday.

Go said this is to show their objection to the move of Congress to scrap the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) for court personnel.

“If JDF will be scrapped, we will be affected because it is our living allowance,” she said, adding wearing black is discretionary among court employees.

Congress reportedly proposed to scrap the fund after President Benigno Aquino III’s move against the Supreme Court’s decision declaring key portions of the Disbursement Acceleration Fund (DAF) or pork barrel of the president as unconstitutional.

The court employees and judges were receiving P2,000 to P2,200 every month from the JDF, based on the income of the court.

Regional Trial Court first vice executive judge Wilfredo Navarro in Cebu City told the media that they did not receive any directives or order to wear black on Monday.

“There was none, there was no order (wearing black on Monday) for that matter…it is a free country… we are supposed to bulwark democracy and freedom, so whatever it takes as long as there is no violation of the law especially criminal laws and penal laws then it’s okay… you can expressed yourself,” he said.

With the proposal of Congress, Navarro said it would be a big loss for them financially.

In his opinion, Navarro said such move is like “they are trying to get back at the judiciary.” He said that it could be possible that the move of scrapping the JDF has in relation to the declaration of the SC on DAP as unconstitutional.

Navarro stressed that each department of the government should respect each other being a co-equal branch and that the decision of the SC should be respected. —/ATO (FREEMAN)