SC rules on retired justices’ benefits

The Supreme Court (SC) has ordered the Department of Budget and Management (DBM) to issue a special allotment release order (SARO) for R23.02 million to pay the retirement gratuity differentials of 28 Court of Appeals (CA) justices who retired between 2005 to 2010.

In a decision written by the now retired Justice Presbitero J. Velasco Jr., the SC said the SARO from DBM should have a corresponding notice of cash allocation payable from the Pension and Gratuity Fund.

The decision granted the petition filed by the Association of Retired Court of Appeals Justices, Inc. (ARCAJI) represented by its president Teodoro R. Regino against the DBM then headed by Secretary Florencio Abad Jr.

ARCAJI elevated the issue before the SC after the DBM rejected its members’ request for the recomputation of their retirement gratuities and differentials in view of the salary increases between 2007 and 2011.

The members pointed out that since the retirement gratuity they received was computed solely on the basis of their salary at the time of their retirement, their retirement gratuities should be recomputed based on the increases given to incumbent CA justices during the five-year period after their retirement.

In denying their request, the DBM said that the claims of the retired CA justices must be sourced from the Special Allowance for the Judiciary (SAJ) and not from the government’s Pension and Gratuity Fund.

It said that the General Appropriation Acts (GAAs) from 2007 to 2014 specifically, clearly, and consistently provided that the SAJ component of the retirement benefits should be sourced from the SAJ fund, and not elsewhere.