Philippine Judges’ Association

E·N·Q·U·I·R·Y
DEMAREE J.B. RAVAL

Philippine Judges’ Association
Sunday, 10 18, 2005

The story goes that a trial judge, for lack of a decent place for him to stay in, inveigled the plaintiff in an unlawful detainer suit to allow him to stay in the plaintiff’s house in exchange for an issuance by the judge of an order to the defendant to vacate the house under question. No different in the odium of the thing is the story of another judge in a replevin case who, for lack of a vehicle, had to use a car he had ordered returned to its rightful owner.

Undoubtedly true to isolated cases of errant judges, these and similar stories have, however, cast a stain that has spread on the whole mantle of the Judiciary, a stain blacker than the robes they don in court, that a former President once alluded to judges as “hoodlums in robes.” But here’s the rub: while the public has come to regard judges as servants of that impartial Lady with a pair of scales in her hand and a blindfold over her eyes, what has escaped the public consciousness is the blind eye with which our government has regarded their plight.

Compared to lawyers engaged in private practice, judges receive measly pay and other benefits. They have to contend with facilities: battered typewriters, rickety furniture, and other mementos of the pre-Information Technology Age. A great number of them out there in the provinces work in dingy offices, and preside in unaired courtrooms that even third-world countries elsewhere would deign accept. An addition to these woes is the lack of court personnel that could scarcely attend to current cases, much less work to lessen the backlog.

Consider, if you will, an adjusted pay scale, a couple of computers to take care of information systems, a cheery office with some modest trappings and perhaps an edifice that would awe scalawags and miscreants with the majesty of the law. These are what everyone who lives in the realm of our justice system wishes. But until that blessed day arises, our judges have to fend for themselves, live with the puny benefits accorded them, and execute a lot of self-help projects out of their own initiative and limited resources.

Initiative is exactly what characterizes the yeoman’s job that the Philippine Judges’ Association (PJA) has been doing for the regional trial court judges in the country. Under its president, Judge Romeo F. Barza of the Regional Trial Court of Makati City, the PJA has initiated projects for our judges and pursued laudable advocacies that will truly redound to their benefit.

Take, for instance, the housing project that had been merely a pipe dream of everyone in the PJA. When Barza took his seat at the PJA two years ago, he doggedly made sure that the dream would not vanish in smoke. Today, PJA members have lots they can call their own: one in San Jose del Monte, the other in a prime location abutting The Fort in Taguig City. Another housing site, this time in Cebu, is set to be formally transferred to the PJA. Several other sites in the other judicial regions are in the negotiations stage.

Financing is not going to be a problem, for Barza has wisely cast his vision around for sources. For one, he has had initial talks with the nation’s housing czar, Vice-President Noli de Castro, for the extension of financing facilities available in the housing sector. Availment by the judges of the funds for housing should be possible by the first quarter of next year. And then again Barza lost no time in securing support from his friends in the legislature, among them Senator Ed Angara who has already requested the allocation of a P50 million Trial Court Judges’ Amelioration Fund (TCJAF). This fund will be available to the PJA through the Supreme Court, under a disbursement system very much like the annual Legal Aid Fund administered by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, which, incidentally, is also another Angara initiative. The TCJAF will then provide the seed money for the development of the Judiciary Villages that will soon dot the country in locations consistent with Barza’s vision.

Barza has had his baptism of fire in fighting for the amelioration of the judges’ plight. Everyone remembers how he fought for the increase in salaries of trial court judges. Although Republic Act No. 9227 came up short of expectations, as it merely gave the judges an increase in allowances over a four-year period, it nonetheless was an initial victory for Barza and the PJA. Not one who’s content to rest on his laurels, and believing strongly that the new allowances are not enough, Barza has requested Angara to author Senate Bill No. 2120 increasing the salaries of judges, under a salary scale adopted especially for them. A regional trial court judge then, under the Angara bill, stands to receive a salary of Php60,226 (Step 8) - admittedly not much, but it makes the position of a judge more competitive. Hopefully, the many vacancies in the trial courts will be filled soon, with more competent lawyers trying their luck as magistrates.

Barza’s integrity as a no-nonsense judge has spilled over to his handling of the PJA. He has adopted a new direction for the PJA, making it an effective tool of the Supreme Court in policing the ranks of trial court judges. Just recently, Barza steered the PJA to the doorsteps of the South East Asia Parliamentarians Against Corruption (SEAPAC), for possible membership in that regional aggrupation dedicated to combating corruption. He and three other members of the PJA attended the recently concluded anti-corruption workshop sponsored by the Friedrich Ebert-Stiftung.

At the PJA national convention tomorrow at the Manila Hotel, it would not be unreasonable to expect Barza, for all his leadership and vision for the PJA, to transform the convention from a mere election-cum-socialization assembly into an effective forum where trial judges could energetically exchange views, and assess the projects that benefit them.

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