A TALISAY City councilor is asking Mayor Eddie Gullas to increase the monthly allowances of prosecutors and judges assigned in the city.
In a resolution, Talisay City Councilor Richard Francis Aznar said it’s about time that the city’s prosecutors and judges were given an additional monthly allowance for services they rendered to the city.
Currently, city prosecutors and judges serving in Talisay City receive a monthly allowance of P5,000. This was instituted in the time of former Talisay City Mayor Socrates Fernandez.
He was mayor from 2004 to 2013.
Four judges, two from the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MTCC) and two from the Regional Trial Court, and six prosecutors are serving in Talisay City.
Increase
Aznar said there is a need to increase the monthly stipend of the city’s judges and prosecutors because of the increasing case load that they handle.
“This is one way of strengthening the judicial institution and reducing financial pressure in order to defy and resist graft and corruption,” Aznar said.
Discretion
But Aznar said the proposed increase in the monthly allowance of judges and prosecutors will depend on the mayor’s discretion or on the availability of funds.
Republic Act 7160, known as the Local Government Code, states that the LGU must provide additional allowances and other benefits to judges, prosecutors, public elementary and high school teachers and other National Government officials stationed in their areas, if there are funds available.
Aside from the Local Government Code, Republic Act 9227 also provides additional compensation in the form of special allowances for justices, judges and all other positions in the judiciary with the equivalent rank of Justices of the Court of Appeals and judges of the Regional Trial Court.