A congressional leader has proposed that the retirement law for the judiciary, Republic Act 910, should apply to judiciary officials given their judicial rank, salary and privileges by the Supreme Court.
Deputy Speaker and Cagayan de Oro.Rep. Rufus Rodriguez’s House Bill 8547 covers the court administrator, his deputy, clerks of court and other officers conferred judicial rank by the Supreme Court through resolutions.
In filing the bill, Rodriguez says RA 910 applies only to “justices of the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals, the Sandiganbayan, or the Court of Tax Appeals, or a judge of the regional trial court, metropolitan trial court, municipal trial court, municipal circuit trial court, shari’a district court, or any other court created by law.”
However, he said every now and then, the Supreme Court, through the issuance of resolutions, grants certain judiciary officers judicial rank, salary and privileges and requests the Government Service Insurance System to have them covered by the retirement law for the judiciary.
For instance, he said, the high court had given such rank and benefits to its court administrator, his deputy and its clerk of court.
The House leader noted that in 1986, then chief justice Ramon Aquino approved the retirement application of court administrator Romeo Mendoza and forwarded it to the GSIS for implementation under RA 910.
In 1993, then chief justice Andres Narvasa approved the application of clerk of court Daniel Martinez to retire under the same law, he said.
“However, the GSIS Act of 1997 took judiciary officials with judicial rank, salary and privileges out of its coverage, except life insurance, and refunded their personal contributions to the GSIS fund,” Rodriguez said.
He said RA 9946, which amended RA 910 and granted more benefits to members of the judiciary, limits its coverage to justices and judges only.
“The absence of a retirement law that expressly upholds the resolutions of the Supreme Court allowing judiciary officials with judicial rank, salary and privileges to retire under RA 910 has resulted in the fragmented application of the law,” he said.
