No cross-border fund transfer – SC

MANILA, Philippines - Contrary to the claims of President Aquino, the Supreme Court (SC) did not implement a cross-border transfer of funds for the construction of justice halls in the cities of Manila and Malabon.

Documents released by the high court yesterday debunked the insinuation of Aquino that the high tribunal itself committed the same act under the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP), which it declared unconstitutional.

In his speech during the commemoration of the 150th birth anniversary of hero Apolinario Mabini in Batangas on Wednesday, Aquino cited the SC’s own DAP-like cross-border fund transfers involving P1.865 billion for projects of the executive branch.

It was the same argument used by the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in appealing the SC ruling last week.

But a July 17, 2012 resolution of the high tribunal showed the P1.865-billion funding for the construction of the Manila hall of justice housing 120 courts came “from existing savings of the Court.”

The SC had also allocated P266.95 million and P251.27 million from its savings for construction costs of buildings for the Cebu Court of Appeals and Cagayan de Oro Court of Appeals, respectively.

In its ruling on the DAP last July 1, the high court specifically declared as illegal the cross-border transfer of savings of the executive to augment funds of agencies outside the department.

An insider at the high court said there was no cross-border funding of the Manila project, which is under the Justice System Infrastructure Program (JUSIP), and explained that it just so happened that the item was listed under the Department of Justice (DOJ) of the executive branch in the General Appropriations Act for 2012.

“Maybe the essential question should be: Why is the money for the courts with the DOJ, which is not part of the judiciary?” said the court official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

“It’s a project under the JUSIP, which is a joint program by the SC and the DOJ,” the court official said, referring to the hall of justice project for Manila.

The official citied a memorandum of agreement made in 2000.

Under the JUSIP, local governments donate parcels of land for use of the trial court and DOJ offices. Under the agreement, the DOJ constructs a hall of justice and turns over all pertinent documents to the court and the ownership of both the land and the hall of justice is consolidated with the Court, which is then tasked to maintain the same.

In his tirade against the high court, Aquino also cited an SC resolution on March 5 last year requesting the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to approve the transfer of P100 million – included in the JUSIP budget for 2012 for the Manila City Hall of Justice – to the budget of the judiciary “to be used for the construction of the Malabon hall of justice.”