A Red Day for the Judiciary
Court Employees’ Mass Leave Cripples Negros Courts

Nearly a thousand judiciary employees from 80 regional trial court salas in Bacolod City and other areas of Negros went on week-long mass leave, rendering courts in the region empty. The protest, which coincides with similar actions in Metro Manila and other regions, is seen to continue this week.

BY KARL G. OMBION
Bulatlat.com/Cobra-ans

Negros court employees ask for long-delayed pay increases and benefits. 

 Photo by Karl Ombion / Bulatlat.com

BACOLOD CITY – Close to a thousand judiciary employees from 80 regional trial court salas in Bacolod City and other areas of Negros went on week-long mass leave, rendering courts in the region empty.

Led by the Coalition of Trial Court Employees (CORTE), the protesters’ leader Rene Tolentino said that their protest action is in pursuit of economic demands and not against Supreme Court Chief Justice Hilario Davide.  

Wearing either red shirts or red ribbons, the protesters demanded salary increases and benefits just like their superiors who were earlier granted hefty increases and benefits by Congress, as well as the just implementation of their share in the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF). They said that they  would be content even with just a portion of what Congress granted to judges.

The court employees’ leader chided Congress for the exclusion of court employees in the package of benefits the judges and justices got.

The judiciary employees in Negros began their protest actions Nov. 3 and continued till Friday Nov. 7. Their counterparts in other provinces in the Visayas reportedly joined the mass leave Nov. 5 and will continue until next week.

In Bacolod, almost all of court personnel went on mass leave. In many court salas, there was 100 percent paralysis.

CORTE said they decided to move because their demands for better wages and benefits remained unheeded. Their income, they said, can hardly meet their families’ needs, including children’s schooling, food and other necessities.

COURAGE backs CORTE

The Confederation for Unity, Recognition and Advancement of Government Employees (COURAGE) – Western Visayas, in a press statement furnished Bulatlat.com said it is declaring full support and solidarity with CORTE’s protest action, including its demand for a 50 percent salary increase and benefits.

COURAGE said the judiciary rank and file employees and other government workers must unite and press for their legitimate demands. 

COURAGE also scored how the legitimate grievances of court employees have been sidelined by the wrangling and grandstanding of traditional politicians in the country. “This self-serving partisan political intramural in the judicial and legislative halls will not benefit and promote the welfare of the rank and file court employees. Instead, it will sink deeper their deprivation,” COURAGE said.

Warning

As court employees went on protest, Negros Occidental Gov. Joseph Maranon called on them not to prolong their mass leave because it would affect public service.

Maranon said that while “the capacity and seriousness of the court employees in their protest action, as shown by their unity in mass leave” is laudable, “it is unfortunate that government employees who are supposed to dispense public services are the ones obstructing it”.

The statement came out as reports circulated that Davide met with executive judges and court officials in Manila, directing them to ban court employees from staging protests that could be exploited by anti-Davide groups.

“If they can do it, what could prevent other government employees from doing the same? If this continues, the general public will be chief losers, not the government employees,” Maranon added.

COURAGE-Western Visayas responded by slamming the Chief Justice and the governor.

“In fairness to the Chief Justice’s intention to avert further chaos in the judiciary, he should not let his paranoia sideline or trample the exercise of the rights of government employees to seek redress for their demands,” COURAGE said.

COURAGE regional vice-chairman Danilo Alcoriza said mass actions for wage increases and against irregularities in the government “are  part of the government employees’ rights and professional commitment to make public service truly transparent and beneficial to all.”

“In fact, collective and militant mass actions have proven to be effective weapons of government employees in getting what is due them,” he added.

Protesters dismissed the warning, saying “to deprive us of our right to seek redress for our legitimate grievances, is to implement a double-standard. The judges and SC officials themselves have staged mass actions, including the mass actions supporting the Chief Justice”.

“We have nothing to do with the squabbles between the SC and the legislators. It is their right. We just wish that none of them make use of our issues to advance certain self-vested interests,” they added. Bulatlat.com

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