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Tuesday, October 07, 2003
City courts disregard nationwide mass leave
By Raquel C. Bagnol
* 2 judges interviewed say they fully support demands for better wages, benefits but it's unfair to the public if they leave their tasks for the day
JUDGES in Davao City supported the nationwide protest against Congress' failure to pass a measure that will increase the judiciary personnel's salaries and other benefits but did not join the nationwide mass leave Monday.
The reasons: the text message urging judges and court workers to go on mass leave came too late, and individual judges believe going on mass leave is a disservice to the public.
Court sources when asked about why they did not join the mass leave said the message about the plan sent through text came too late, they could not do anything about it.
But in an interview with Sun.Star, Municipal Trial Court in Cities branch 5
Judge Daydews Villamor said he sympathizes with the judges' plight and supported their cause but he has to push through with the court hearings in his sala.
"We definitely sympathize with them but we can not postpone our court hearings at the expense of the litigants. Kawawa naman sila, they have to pay for the appearance fee of their lawyers, tapos ma-postpone lang dahil mag-rally kami," Villamor said.
Judge Antonina B. Escovilla of the MTCC branch 2 supported Villamor's views, stressing she personally is not in favor of postponing court hearings although she supports the judges' cause.
"We are members of the Association of City Judges, and we'll just wait whatever decision our officials decide as a group, but for now we'll just go on with our scheduled hearings," Escovilla said.
Claudio E. Hoybia, national president of the Philippine Association of Court Employees (Pace) said they fully support the move for the increase the budget for the judiciary development fund to be used to fill up the vacancies in various offices.
"We support for the increase in benefits and salaries not only for the judges but for all court employees as well," Hoybia said.
Hoybia added it would be unfair to increase the salaries only for those occupying higher posts in the judiciary system but the court employees must not be left behind.
"There are about 26,000 court employees nationwide and more than 2,000 of them are employed in Region 11. They contain the bulk of the work force in the courts," he added.
"At the very least, 30 million Filipinos are not being properly serviced (by courts) and suffer from delay in trial and disposition," Judge Antonio Eugenio, who heads the association of Manila trial court judges said.
In Metro Manila and other key cities, judges and court employees went on mass leave Monday to protest Congress' failure to pass a measure that would increase their salary.
The protesting judges and court personnel would be on strike for one day only.
"At the very least, 30 million Filipinos are not being properly serviced (by courts) and suffer from delay(s) in trial and disposition." Judge Antonio Eugenio, who heads the association of Manila trial court judges said.
The Philippine Judges Association (PJA), Philippine Trial Judges League (PTJL) and the Metropolitan and City Judges Association of the Philippines (MCJAP) are pressing for the passage of a bill pending before Congress for a 25 percent increase in judges' salaries and allowances stretched over a four-year period.
The bill is a watered-down version of an original proposal authored by Sen.
Francis Pangilinan that seeks the exemption of judges from the salary standardization law.
Ma. Celia Flores, president of the Philippine Confederation of Court Employees Association (Philconcea) said they are concerned about what is going on with the measure in connection with the salary increase.
(October 7, 2003 issue)
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