Lawmakers seek budget hike for judiciary

MANILA, Philippines - The judiciary has been getting a share of less than one percent from the annual national budget since 2010, prompting senior administration lawmakers to push yesterday for an allocation increase.

Cagayan de Oro Rep. Rufus Rodriguez sought increased budget for the judiciary during the deliberations on its proposed P26.6-billion appropriations at the House of Representatives under the proposed P3.002-trillion national budget for 2016.

“We have three great branches of government and more than 90 percent of the national budget goes to the executive branch, it’s about time that for starters we increase it to at least one percent or to P30 billion as our legacy from the 16th Congress,” Rodriguez said yesterday at the hearing of the House appropriations sub-committee for the judiciary.

“We have the power of the purse, so we can increase their budget,” he said, adding many major projects of the judiciary, including repairing or putting up halls of justice in various parts of the country have been stalled due to insufficient appropriations.

Rodriguez put forth a motion for the panel to increase the budget of the judiciary and was seconded by Misamis Occidental Rep. Henry Oaminal.

But Davao City Rep. Isidro Ungab, who chairs the appropriations committee, cautioned that the House must be able to find funds to fill the proposed increase.

Reps. Jonathan de la Cruz and Terry Ridon of the Abakada-Guro and Kabataan party-lists, respectively, vowed to look for funds in this year’s budget and in the proposed 2016 budget for the judiciary.

De la Cruz pointed out that Malacañang has been withholding funding for many items that should have been for the judiciary.

Rodriguez also said the legislative branch fared worse, getting less than half of one percent in the budget.

The judiciary in 2010 got .87 percent share of the General Appropriations Act of that year. This year, its share went down to .81 percent.

Deputy Court Administrator Justice Raul Villanueva said among the priority projects of the judiciary are the creation of more family courts, the hiring of contractual court decongestion officers, the construction of new halls of justice, the installation of a new Supreme Court complex, and setting up e-courts.