Solon says SC violating separation of powers with JDF

For 30 years, the Supreme Court has been violating the constitutional doctrine on the separation of powers between branches of government through the Judicial Development Fund (JDF), a lawmaker claimed Thursday.

Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas said the Supreme Court, via the JDF, has been “unduly exercising legislative power” that should solely belong to Congress.

“The Supreme Court is already the one imposing how much should be paid by the public in legal fees, but it also collects, appropriates and spends the money. This is a clear violation of separation of powers,” the head of the House justice committee told reporters in a mix of English and Filipino in a press briefing.

Fariñas, a lawyer, said all appropriation bills and legislative measures authorizing the increase of public debt should originate in the House of Representatives, as stated in the Constitution. The funds, in turn, should be collected by the executive branch.

With the enactment of Presidential Decree (PD) 1949 which created the JDF in 1984, the Supreme Court effectively bypassed the legislative and executive in the appropriation process, he added.

“It’s clear that PD 1949 enabled the Supreme Court to assume executive, legislative and judicial powers,” said Fariñas.

“Immoral” fund

He described the JDF as an “immoral” and “illegal” fund since unlike the executive’s Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP) and lawmakers’ Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF), the judiciary’s discretionary fund cannot be questioned before the Supreme Court, which is in charge of its implementation.

“Where can you file complaints about the JDF when the Supreme Court is tagged as the ‘referee’ in disputes of law? Which judge will issue a TRO (temporary restraining order) on the SC? The Court is in a win-win position. You can’t question [the JDF] anywhere,” Fariñas said.

The Supreme Court has declared PDAF and parts of DAP as unconstitutional.

The lawmaker said it is about time the 30-year-old law is changed to return the power of the purse and oversight to Congress.

“Let’s bring the money into the National Treasury instead of going directly to the Supreme Court so it would be appropriated accordingly by Congress and subject to public hearing,” Fariñas said.

The lawmaker has filed House Bill 4690 seeking to amend certain provisions in PD 1949 regarding the remittance, allocation, disbursement and audit of the JDF.

Under the bill, all fees and collections constituting the JDF shall be regularly remitted by the Supreme Court to the National Treasury. It shall be treated as a special fund in the National Treasury.

Should the proposal become a law, no allocation, disbursement or expenditure of the JDF shall be paid out except pursuant to an appropriation by Congress as part of the Judiciary’s budget as part of the General Appropriations Act.

The Commission on Audit will be mandated to conduct a quarterly audit of the JDF.

Checks and balances

In the bill’s explanatory note, Fariñas said the proposed transfer of the administration of the JDF from the Supreme Court to the Bureau of the Treasury is neither a diminution of the grant of fiscal autonomy nor it is an attack on the judiciary’s independence.
 

“[It] is done pursuant to the constitutional system of checks and balances and the overriding principles of transparency, accountability and good governance,” he said.

According to the legislator, HB 4690 only seeks to correct a “midnight legislation” and not abolish the JDF, unlike the bill filed by Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. on Monday.

Tupas' HB 4738 seeks to repeal PD 1949 and replace the JDF with a Judicial Support Fund (JSF) that will only be released to the Supreme Court after the judiciary has submitted an itemized special budget detailing where the funds will be spent. —KBK, GMA News