Senator Raffy Tulfo expressed full support for the 2024 national budget of the Judiciary to ensure that it will remain independent and not beholden to anyone in dispensing justice.
During the Senate budget hearing, Tulfo stressed that the Judiciary, particularly the lower courts, needs independence from other bodies such as local government units because it would shield them from influence in the handling of cases that are brought before them.
The legislator noted that the infrastructure of our lower courts deserves enough budget because it gives these institutions their dignity.
“Kung pupunta po tayo sa ilang mga korte natin, kalunos lunos po ang kondisyon.”
“Kung pupunta po tayo sa ilang mga korte natin, kalunos lunos po ang kondisyon,” the lawmaker stressed.
Aside from this, the senator also backed the modernization plan or the innovation plan of the Supreme Court for the lower courts, including digitalization which would expedite all court matters.
Presently, he said some courts still do not have telephones or mobile number with enough data that will help them become accessible to the people and allow them to quickly inform both parties of a postponed hearing.
Meanwhile, Tulfo urged his colleagues to help bring back the allocation for the judges’ hazard pay which appeared to have been slashed from their proposed 2024 national budget. It can be noted that in the past budget, they were given hazard pay.
“Maliit na bagay if we give this to them.”
“Our judges are in constant risk of their lives given the nature of their work. Maliit na bagay if we give this to them. Because our judges ito po ang humaharap sa mga litigante. And madami po sa mga litigante ang hindi natin matantsa ang pag-iisip, may mga mainit ang dugo, galit, and our judges have to face these people and tell them that they lost in their cases,” he pointed out.
Finally, Tulfo supported the request of the Judiciary regarding the budget of 537 million pesos for the creation of family courts in Regions 2, 8, 10, and 12 which have not been given.
Tulfo cited the pending cases in Regions 2, 8, 10, and 12 that should be handled by family courts in 2022 but was not able to, including cases such as VAWC, rape involving minors, child abuse and human trafficking.
Additionally, he noted that at present, there are 2,397 family court cases in Region 2, 762 in Region 8, 2,381 in Region 10, and 1,310 in Region 12 but these cases are being handled by designated Regional Trial Courts.
The Senator from Isabela and Davao stressed that these courts are overburdened when it should be handled by Family Courts that could not be opened because they have no budget allocation.
