Northern Samar Rep. Emilio Ong (second district) blamed the Department of Budget and Management for the reduction in the allocation for the judiciary in the proposed P1.227-trillion national budget for 2008.
Ong, chairman of the House sub-committee on the judiciary, said the congressmen even increased the judiciary’s budget by P50 million.
“We even had to reduce the budget allocated to the other departments to augment the budget for the judiciary. It was very hard to augment,” said Ong.
Ong was reacting to the recent complaint of the Philippine Judges Association that is composed of 900 regional trial court judges nationwide.
In a statement, the PJA deplored the reduction in the budget for the judiciary in the “strongest possible terms.”
“The unexpected slash in the proposed budget was never explained. We deplore in the strongest possible terms the drastic reduction in the proposed budget that the judiciary received. While not yet entirely losing hope, the PJA must necessarily turn to the Senate to rectify this anomalous situation,” said PJA president Judge Antonio Eugenio of the Manila Regional Trial Court Branch 24.
The House of Representatives recently passed the 2008 budget worth P1.227 trillion. The 2008 budget originally include P14.6 billion for the judiciary, but it was reduced to P10.34 billion.
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Aquilino Pimentel Jr. assured officials and employees of the judiciary that he will support their appeal for the restoration of the P4-billion that was cut by the House.
Pimentel said there is no reason for the hefty budget cut since the judiciary needs more funds to hire additional judges and cope with increasing number of cases. – With Christina Mendez, Charlie Lagasca