Wednesday, August 02, 2006
Courts still has P2M power, water bills
By Joy Romares-Sevilla
DAVAO City's Hall of Justice still has around P2-million payables for its electricity and water bills -- a debt incurred over a decade ago, said Regional Trial Court (RTC) Executive Judge Renato A. Fuentes.
Fuentes said what they are doing ever since was just to pay the interest of the same unsettled debt.
He attributed this huge debt to the lack of budget for the judiciary, which was among the concerns raised by the judges during a dialogue with the Supreme Court (SC) administrator at the Waterfront Insular Hotel, Davao City in Lanang, Monday.
SC administrator Christopher Lock acknowledged that money is a big problem in improving the administration of justice and in meeting the courts' expenses in supplies, electric bills, and in water bills.
With only 1.1 percent of the national budget allocated to the judiciary, Lock and the 65 judges (not 60 as reported earlier) who attended the dialogue said that it was not enough to pay the expenses and the debts of trial courts.
Meanwhile, Fuentes said that although the RTC is burdened with a lot of problems not only in terms of expenses, but also in how to improve the Hall of Justice building, they are making do with what they have.
Fuentes added that the City Government is also helping them out often.
"When we run out of supplies, the city provides us with supplies, but the help is still not enough. Of course, we cannot blame the city on this because we understand that the city is also having a lot of expenses," Fuentes said.
Fuentes added that the hall of justice is paying P200,000 to P300,000 for the electric bills and the same amount for the water bills every month.
"The congress should allocate at least 10 percent of the national budget to the judiciary for the improvement of the infrastructures, personnel, supplies and expenses of the sheriffs. It is very sad to think about this, I don't know why the congress is so kuripot (thrifty) in appropriating budget for the judiciary," Fuentes said.
Lock said he has already discussed the problem with Congress.
For Bisaya stories from Davao. Click here. (August 2, 2006 issue)
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