The Philippine Online Chronicles

In an en banc resolution, the Supreme Court (SC) ordered the Department of Budget and Management to explain the delay in the salary increases and special allowances of Court of Appeals retired justices.

The SC said Budget Secretary Florencio Abad should comment on why he shouldn’t be held liable for graft for withholding the release of the funds for 10 months, in violation of the 1987 Constitution.

Under Article VIII, Section 3 of the 1987 Constitution, the government should automatically and regularly release the necessary funding for the special allowance of the judiciary as component of the retirement gratuity.

The SC gave DBM 10 days for its explanation. “Acting on the special civil action for mandamus, the Court resolved, without giving due course to the petition, to require the respondent to comment on the petition within 10 days from notice hereof,” the SC said.

Abad told Sun Star he is already working on a reply and will disseminate it through a press release.

Meanwhile, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said she is sure that Abad will promptly reply.

However, she added, “There are complications there because from what I understand, Secretary Butch Abad was impleaded in his personal capacity and he was not even a budget secretary (then). But I know that Secretary Abad has prepared for that and has formed a legal (team)...he has gotten legal representation in the proceedings before the Supreme Court.”

The resolution was in response to a petition filed by retired Justice Teodoro Regino, president of the Association of Retired Court of Appeals Justices Inc. The group also accused Abad of violating Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

Regino, in the five-page petition, wrote, "petitioner most respectfully prays that this Honorable Supreme Court order the Hon. Budget Secretary Florencio Abad Jr. to immediately issue the necessary Special Allotment Release Order (SARO) and the corresponding Notice of Cash Allocation (NCA) to cover funding requirements for their salary increases under E.O. Nos. 611, 719 and 811, for their Special Allowance (SAJ) previously denied funding and release since January this year, to the present, and to provide regularly the necessary automatic releases and funding for future claims as they fall due.”

They also said that Abad was discriminating against the older retirees since the DBM has been releasing the claims on special allowances for younger retired justices and junior justices.

“These notwithstanding, respondent official [Abad], who is primarily charged by law and the Constitution, who has a duty to automatically and regular release the necessary funding for the special allowance of the Judiciary which is a component of the retirement gratuity [Article VIII, Section 3, 1987 Constitution], continues willfully to refuse or neglect and still unlawfully refuses and fails to fund and release the salary increases and the special allowance for the retired justices for 10 months now, beginning January of this year,” the petitioners said. They also accused Abad of “neglect, without just cause, to perform his official duty as Budget Secretary, especially during these hard times, the members of petitioner’s Association suffered undue injury and damages, including moral, nominal, temperate, exemplary or corrective, to be assessed by this Honorable Supreme Court, as a personal liability of respondent,” read the resolution.

According to the Philippine Star, Abad refused to release the funds despite the SC’s May 4, 2010 order for DBM to issue special allotment release orders (SARO) and notices of cash allocation (NCA) to cover funding for the petitioners.

For the past few months, the judiciary and the executive department have been in a row since the Palace and the DBM proposed the transfer of around P2 billion from the Justice budget to the miscellaneous personnel benefits fund (MPBF).