516 Phil. 361
CALLEJO, SR., J.:
Position Title/SG per A.M. No. 01-1-04-SC | Position Title/SG per DBM NOSCA | Remarks |
SC Chief Judicial Staff Officer/SG 25 | Administrative Officer V/SG 24 | Title downgraded and SG reduced |
Supervising Judicial Staff Officer/SG 23 | Administrative Officer IV/SG22 | Title downgraded and SG reduced [2] |
As envisioned in the Constitution, the fiscal autonomy enjoyed by the Judiciary, the Civil Service Commission and the Commission on Audit, the Commission on Elections, and the Office of the Ombudsman contemplates a guarantee of full flexibility to allocate and utilize their resources with the wisdom and dispatch that their needs require. It recognizes the power and authority to levy, assess and collect fees, fix rates of compensation not exceeding the highest rates authorized by law for compensation and pay plans of the government and allocate and disburse such sums as may be provided by law or prescribed by them in the course of the discharge of their functions.Clearly then, in downgrading the positions and salary grades of SC Chief Judicial Staff Officer and SC Supervising Judicial Staff Officer in the PHILJA, the DBM overstepped its authority and encroached upon the Court's fiscal autonomy and supervision of court personnel as enshrined in the Constitution; in fine, a violation of the Constitution itself.
Fiscal autonomy means freedom from outside control. If the Supreme Court says it needs 100 typewriters but DBM rules we need only 10 typewriters and sends its recommendations to Congress without even informing us, the autonomy given by the Constitution becomes an empty and illusory platitude.
The Judiciary, the Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman must have the independence and flexibility needed in the discharge of their constitutional duties. The imposition of restrictions and constraints on the manner the independent constitutional offices allocate and utilize the funds appropriated for their operations is anathema to fiscal autonomy and violative not only of the express mandate of the Constitution but especially as regards the Supreme Court, of the independence and separation of powers upon which the entire fabric of our constitutional system is based. In the interest of comity and cooperation, the Supreme Court, Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman have so far limited their objections to constant reminders. We now agree with the petitioners that this grant of autonomy should cease to be a meaningless provision. [11]
Moreover, the General Provisions of the General Appropriations Act reiterates the constitutional provision on fiscal autonomy of the Judiciary. In matters affecting court personnel and compensation, the Court is guided by the Special Provision for the Judiciary under the General Appropriations Act for FY 2003 (Republic Act No. 9206), which was deemed reenacted for FY 2004, and hence governed during the issuance of the Resolution of 24 February 2004. The Special Provision vests the Chief Justice with the authority to "formulate and implement the organizational structure of the Judiciary, to fix and determine the salaries[,] allowances and other benefits of their personnel, and whenever public interest so requires, makes adjustments in the personal services itemization, including but not limited to the transfer of item or creation of new positions in the Judiciary."CONSIDERING THE FOREGOING, the Court REITERATES its Resolution of July 5, 2005 retaining the originally proposed titles and salary grades of the positions of SC Chief Judicial Staff Officer (SG 25) and Supervising Judicial Staff Officer (SG 23) in the Philippine Judicial Academy. The Department of Budget and Management is DIRECTED to implement the Resolutions of the Court dated February 24, 2004 and July 5, 2005.
It is therefore clear that when the Court exercises its administrative authority over matters affecting its personnel, it does so within parameters prescribed by pertinent laws. It cannot be presumed that the Court will violate budgetary laws or go beyond the ambit of its authority or issue administrative resolutions in derogation of the law. The exercise of such authority should not in any case be absolute or outside the law as, being the ultimate interpreter of the law, the Court is constitutionally bound to observe the Constitution and the law is mandated to interpret. On the other hand, the DBM is duty-bound not only to accord respect for the issuances of the highest Court in the Judiciary, the third branch of government, but also to implement them. For the DBM to even venture to alter a Resolution of the Court is to violate the basic principle of separation of powers. xxx
xxx
Thus, the authority of the DBM to "review" the plantilla and compensation of court personnel extends only to "calling the attention of the Court" on what it may perceive as erroneous application of budgetary laws and rules on position classification. The DBM may not overstep its authority in such a way as to cause the amendment or modification of Court resolutions even if these pertain to administration of compensation and position classification system. Only after its attention to an allegedly erroneous application of the pertinent law or rule has been called by the DBM may the Court amend or modify its resolution, as its judgment and discretion may dictate under the law.
In this instance, the change of two position titles was made apparently to conform to position titles indicated in the personnel services itemization for all government positions, clearly oblivious of the fact that positions in the Judiciary are peculiar only to that branch of government. It appearing that the salary grades of 25 and 23 are proper positions equivalent to those of SC Chief Judicial Staff Officer and Supervising Judicial Staff Officer, respectively, under the Salary Standardization Law, and that the Court prescribed those position titles only after consideration of the nature of work and functions that the holders of those positions must perform, there is no reason to amend the Resolutions of 24 February 2004, and of 5 July 2005, so as to reflect the position titles and salary grades stated in the NOSCA for the same positions. [12]
(a) | Chief Justice Staff Head – from Salary Grade 28 to Salary Grade 29; | |
(b) | Judicial Staff Head (Office of the Chief Justice and Office of the Associate Justices) – | |
(2) | the change of position titles and upgrading of salaries of the following: | |
| (a) | Director IV (Chief, Fiscal Management and Budget Office) to SC Chief, Fiscal Management and Budget Office – from Salary Grade 28 to Salary Grade 29; |
| (b) | Director III (Assistant Chiefs of Offices, Office of Administrative Services, Office of the Chief Attorney, Office of the Judicial Records, Office of the Bar Confidant, Office of the Reporter, Fiscal Management and Budget Office, and Office of the Management Information Systems Office) to SC Assistant Chief of Office – from Salary Grade 27 to Salary Grade 28; |
| (c) | Director III, Office of the Court Administrator to SC Senior Chief Staff Officer, Office of the Court Administrator to SC Senior Chief Staff Officer, Office of the Court Administrator – from Salary Grade 27 to Salary Grade 28; |
| (d) | Chief of Division to SC Chief Judicial Staff Officer – from Salary Grade 24 to Salary Grade 25; and |
| (e) | Assistant Chief of Division to SC Supervising Judicial Staff Officer – from Salary Grade 22 to Salary Grade 23. |