October 6, 2003, The Manila Times, Courts to close as magistrates march to Senate, by Ma. Theresa Torres,

October 6, 2003, The Manila Times, Courts to close as magistrates march to Senate, by Ma. Theresa Torres, Reporter and Sammy Martin, Correspondent

The country’s courts will be closed today as judges and their staff will go on nationwide strike to protest what they say is the slowness of the Senate in approving a bill calling for higher pay for members of the judiciary.

Members from three nationwide organizations of judges would lead a mass action in the Senate.

These organizations are the Philippine Judicial Association (PJA) composed of regional trial court judges; Philippine Trial Judges League (PTJL) made up of municipal Judges and the Metropolitan and City Judges Association of the Philippines (Metrocjap).

The protest action, however, may just be a case of barking up the wrong tree, said Sen. Francis Pangilinan, chair of the Senate Committee on Justice and Human Rights.

In a telephone interview, Pangi­linan told The Times that the bill in question had been passed on third and final reading in the Senate as well as in the House of Representatives.

“The ball is now in the hands of the bicameral conference committee and they are trying to consolidate the conflicting provisions of both chambers,” Pangilinan said.

Judge Mariano de la Cruz Jr., PJA president, said the three organi­zations and a group of court per­sonnel have been pushing for the immediate passage of the bill. They said the bill was being blocked by some senators.

“This mass action is the only way that the public litigants and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines [IBP] will know about the sad plight of the members of the judiciary,” de la Cruz said.

The judiciary’s share in the national budget should be equal to that of the other branches of government, the groups said.

Of the proposed P865-billion budget for 2004, only .09 percent of 1 percent, or P7.8 billion, is allotted to the judiciary, the judges say.

“This is despite the fact that the judiciary is tasked with a very vital and indispensable function of dispensing justice. [The judiciary, which is] overloaded with hundreds of thousands of cases gets so much less than many departments and agencies in the executive branch,” the judges’ organizations said in their manifestation.

Once approved, the bill, Rationalizing the Pay Scale of the Judiciary, would streamline the administration of justice by rationalizing the pay structure for justices, judges and state lawyers.

The bill is one of the first priority maesures of the Arroyo administration.

Currently, almost one-third of the trial courts nationwide are vacant, because most lawyers are not interested in working in the judiciary owing to low salaries.

“[The bill] seeks to raise the compensation package to competitive levels in order to, among others, entice competent private practitioners to join the judiciary,” Pangilinan said.

Alluding to the striking judges, Pangilinan said: “Maybe they are misinformed about the movements of the bill. It is already in the bicameral and they are about to finish it in a couple of days and will soon be submitted to both Houses for ratification.”