All about total control

Editorial

Noynoy says he wants judicial reforms yet he does everything to strip the Supreme Court (SC) — nay, the entire judiciary, of virtually every shred of independence. And this he does by scrapping not only the judiciary allowances in the 2013 budget but that he also wants the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF) monies taken out of the Judiciary and turned over to the treasury, making the funds part of the general fund.

Already, a Noynoy ally in the House of Representatives has filed a bill entitled the “Act Mandating the Transfer of the Administration of the Judiciary Development Fund from the Supreme Court to the Bureau of Treasury,” to ensure transparency in the custody, accounting and disbursement of the JDF.

The JDF was established by law — through Presidential Decree 1949 — to augment the allowances of the members and personnel of the Judiciary and to finance the acquisition, maintenance and repair of court offices, equipment and facilities.

The JDF funds, through the years, are now in the billions of pesos. The funds are earned by the Judiciary in fees collected from litigants and persons getting clearances and other court documents.

The problem with that JDF money going into the general fund is that this can be used anytime, for anything by Nonoy and his boys.

Recall what happened to the special fund for the military modernization from the sale of military land to the private sector that went to the general fund and then illegally used by then president Fidel V. Ramos for expenses other than what the funds were meant? That money was all gone, quick as a wink, and nary a cent went to the modernization of the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

It looks like this is all being planned out by Noynoy and his budget chief, Florencio “Butch” Abad to strip the SC and the entire judiciary of any fiscal autonomy and independence which is supposed to insulate them from political influence, and this is being done by the Palace to ensure Noynoy’s full control over another co-equal branch of government.

It is an undeniable fact that he who controls the money, gets what he wants.

This can be proved by the fact that even as Congress supposedly has the right of the purse, it has no power over the purse, because the purse is being controlled by Malacañang, and the Palace always gets what it wants from Congress by either threatening to withhold congressional pork barrel or releasing the pork barrel for those who toe the Malacañang line.

It is also known as bribery, in which the claimed “walker” of the straight path has been engaging, to get what he wants, such as having a Chief Justice who refused to toe his line impeached by the honorable mounds of manure in Congress.

In the House budget hearings, with the announcement that the special allowances for the judges and justices as well as the JDF funds being scrapped by the Palace, the SC justices and their court administrator protested the move. They called for the allowances to be restored in the proposed budget for next year.

The House committee claimed that, as the SC justices are already getting a gross monthly pay of about P130,000, they should no longer be given additional allowances ranging from P30,000 to P50,000.

The usual Noynoy yellow allies in the committee even claimed that Nonoy does not get that level of compensation.

What crap! Noynoy, as president, has the biggest pork barrel of all and he has that intelligence fund plus his presidential social fund plus plus, all of which he never even has to account for.

As for these honorable shits, they certainly make much much more than the justices in the high court and the appellate court, considering the fact that they get big fact allowances as chairmen and vice chairmen of various committees, apart from the fact that they also make a pile from lobby money.

Noynoy wants control and he will be getting it, not caring a whit about integrity and independence of democratic institutions, and through his control, expect graft and corruption everywhere to be on the rise.