Justice

MANILA, Philippines – Judges in the country have called off their plan to protest the cut in the proposed budget for the judiciary this year after the Palace agreed to restore their current salaries and allowances.

President Aquino and his allies’ vindictiveness toward the high court justices not appointed by him has spread into slashing even their retirement pay.

Chief Justice Renato Corona yesterday warned detractors of the Supreme (SC) who he referred to as “politicians forcing the justices to play their game,” that they are subverting the democratic process.

SC critics abhor legal decisions – Chief Justice SUPREME Court Chief Justice Renato Corona on Thursday said that “politicians” are endangering democracy in the country by practically coercing the High Tribunal to render political, not legal, decisions.

DESPITE a shortage of lawyers needed to render free legal assistance to poor Filipinos, the Public Attorney’s Office (PAO) was able to provide its clients favorable results in 2010.

MANILA, Philippines – Organizations of judges all over the country have called off their planned actions this month to protest the cut in the judiciary’s proposed budget for this year, apparently after being pacified by the Palace.

MANILA, Philippines – When Leila de Lima accepted President Aquino’s offer and assumed the top post of the Department of Justice (DOJ) in July, she vowed a return to what was right, just and true.

LAOAG CITY, Philippines – The mobile hearings of the Supreme Court on Tuesday led to the early termination of about 100 criminal and civil cases in various courts in Ilocos Norte.

The Palace mocked the wearing of black arm bands by justices throughout the country to protest the huge cuts in the budget for the judiciary and com-pared it with the mass actions of militant college students who are complaining about the slashed allocations for state universities and colleges.

The Supreme Court (SC) majority yesterday voted to declare unconstitutional President Aquino’s Executive Order No. 1 creating a truth commission which was tasked to investigate anomalies during the Arroyo administration.

MANILA, Philippines – The Senate and the House of Representatives are not disposed to give in to the clamor of justices, judges and other personnel of the judiciary for more funds next year.

FAILURE TO prosecute perpetrators behind media killings and a weak justice system are reasons violence against journalist persists in the country, making it the most dangerous place for media workers in the world, an official of the United Nations (UN) said.

TAGUM CITY, Philippines—Christmas came early to some 120 inmates of various prison facilities in Southern Mindanao as the Supreme Court’s Justice on Wheels dismissed the charges against them.

Will students now plagiarize big-time given Vinuya? But, they do not work in an-SC-pressure-cooker-type environment and should be taught charity, compassion, balance and fairness, in an uncertain, imperfect world—of fallible beings, where malice and intent should not be dismissed as irrelevant. We await UP’s explanation as to how it could make ex-Justice Vic Mendoza appear…

WHEN the Supreme Court announced in 2008 the rules on the writ of habeas data, many lawyers expressed skepticism about the value of another addition to the country’s already overloaded court procedures.

A P10-million allocation for the compensation of persons wrongfully jailed has been proposed in the House of Representatives. Rep. Al Francis Bichara of the Second District of Albay made the proposal under House Bill 1138 which provides an indemnification of P60,000 a year of detention to persons detained and were acquitted or found innocent by…

MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang clarified yesterday that it had never questioned the Supreme Court’s power of judicial review but only the prudence of its decision to stop President Aquino’s dismissal of the previous administration’s midnight appointees.

CHIEF Justice Renato Corona has vowed to defend the Constitution and the rule of law following the attacks on the Supreme Court and the judiciary’s independence, integrity and power of judicial review.

MANILA, Philippines – Chief Justice Renato Corona has defended the Supreme Court (SC) in exercising its constitutional duty to review actions of the Palace and Congress, saying it is not stepping on the powers of the two other co-equal branches of government.

WASHINGTON, D.C: Sweden and The Netherlands scored high, with the United States lagging behind its high-income peers in a new ranking of government effectiveness called the “Rule of Law Index.”

THE PHILIPPINES has slipped in terms of providing a strong justice system and addressing corruption, according to a new global index upholding the rule of law.

AFTER Malacañang’s grant of amnesty to rebel soldiers linked to past military uprisings, the Catholic Church is now asking President Benigno Aquino 3rd to give similar attention to “common prisoners” languishing in jail. An official of the Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care (ECPPC) of the Catholic Bishops’ Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) on Thursday…

Parties with pending labor cases can personally check the status of their cases by simply visiting the website of the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) at www.dole.gov.ph. Posting the status of all labor cases on its website was one of the Labor department’s “100-days reform deliverable” under the Aquino administration and was delivered by…

Judiciary budget cut causing rumblings Judges are ready to go on a mass leave to protest the possible cut in the Judiciary’s budget for 2011.

MANILA, Philippines – The Supreme Court (SC) yesterday warned of a possible “judicial revolt” amid imminent cuts in the proposed budget of the judiciary for next year.

THE judiciary on Monday is hoping that the Congress would approve its P23-billion proposed budget for 2011 to settle all unpaid benefits of judges and justices. This as Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez on Monday said that some P900-million worth of benefits have not yet received by some 2,308 justices and judges nationwide since 2007.

MANILA, Philippines – Faced with controversies and questions on its integrity, the Supreme Court (SC) has affirmed that the Office of the Ombudsman has the power to directly remove erring officials.

THE Supreme Court (SC) estimates that by next year, all lower courts in Metro Manila should be using the computerized system in encoding, docketing and raffling of cases.

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Conclusion To Commission on Audit (COA) Director Rizalina Mutya, head of the agency’s Cluster B that is assigned to the courts, the judiciary could well make things simpler for itself by decentralizing its budget, accounting and audit processes. Mutya said that right now, “nearly all their transactions . . . have to be reported to…