Sereno holds talks with court workers

TACLOBAN CITY, Philippines — Members of the court employees association in Eastern Visayas have joined their peers from across the country in a rare dialogue with Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno at the SC Division Hall in Manila last week.

The dialogue was held upon the initiative of the national board of the Philippine Association of Court Employees (PACE), led by lawyers Ma. Fe Maloloy-on and Virginia Rafael, president and executive vice president respectively, both clerk of courts in Mindanao.

Maloloy-on and Rafael said it was an opportunity to have an audience with CJ Sereno to discuss many issues affecting trial court employees, especially the rank and file. Others who attended the meeting were the presidents of various PACE groups nationwide.

Among the issues tackled in the dialogue were the position and salary reclassification; implementation of continuous trial; share-a-court situation vis-a-vis appointment of judges without staff and own staff and court rooms; and grant of performance-based bonus (PBB), Maloloy-on said.

Sereno, in the course of the talks, sought for the support of court employees to the continuous trial program, now in full implementation in all courts around the country, as she wanted to show that the Philippine judiciary can be at par with others around the world.

Sereno said she also tasked a team to look into the possibility of giving overtime pay to trial court employees relative to the implementation of the continuous trial. (FREEMAN)