SENATE minority leader Aqui-lino Pimentel Jr.
yesterday said he would push for the restoration in the Senate
version of the proposed national budget the P4 billion cut made
by the Housein the judi-ciary’s 2008 budget.
He said the cut has to be restored since the
judiciary needs more funds to hire additional judges to cope
with increasing number of cases.
He noted that many courthouses and rooms in
different parts of the country remain in dilapidated condition
while the modernization program of the judiciary in terms of
computerization has been hampered by chronic lack of funds. "We
in the Senate will do our best to restore the cut in the
judiciary budget if not wholly, at least substantially,"
Pimentel said.
"The judiciary is one of the government
agencies to which the people go for help when they suffer
injustice and when their rights are violated. How can the
judiciary perform its duties competently if it is always short
of funds?" he said.
Pimentel expressed apprehension that the
Supreme Court’s plan to fill up 200 vacant positions for judges
in the regional trial courts will be dropped if the budget cut
is not reinstated.
"As members of Congress, we should not allow
a situation where the judiciary, as the last recourse of victims
of injustice, will be crippled in discharging its functions to
insufficient funds. That will only aggravate the country’s
troubles."
He said the judiciary deserves additional
funding to fulfill its commitment in resolving thousands of
cases of extra-judicial killings, forced disappearances and
other forms of human rights violations.
Noting that the P4 billion was excised by the House from the
2008 judiciary budget without any explanation, Pimentel said it
would seem that the third independent and co-equal branch of
government is being punished, instead of rewarded, for its
initiatives in decisively addressing the scourge of political
and media killings, since this appears to be a slap on the face
of the executive branch which is under fire for its inept
efforts to solve the problem.
