Authorizing the Court Administrator to Implement His Proposal to Allow Each Trial Court, in Respect of the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF), to Open Its Own Account with the Land Bank of the Philippines (LBP) Subject to Certain Conditions

August 13, 2004

SUPREME COURT MEMORANDUM ORDER NO. 53-04

AUTHORIZING THE COURT ADMINISTRATOR TO IMPLEMENT HIS PROPOSAL TO ALLOW EACH TRIAL COURT, IN RESPECT OF THE JUDICIARY DEVELOPMENT FUND (JDF), TO OPEN ITS OWN ACCOUNT WITH THE LAND BANK OF THE PHILIPPINES (LBP) SUBJECT TO CERTAIN CONDITIONS

WHEREAS, the Court often has difficulty in reconciling the JDF because of delay or unavailability of reports of collections, and is sometimes confused in identifying which of the bank deposits made for the Supreme Court account pertain to the JDF;

WHEREAS, to solve the problem and facilitate the preparation of bank reconciliation statements for the Court, the Court Administrator, in response to the recommendation of the Commission on Audit (COA) in its Annual Audit Report on the Supreme Court and the Lower Courts for CY 2003, that the two existing JDF accounts be closed or otherwise discontinued and that beginning August 2004 the courts for every province should open their own JDF accounts with the LBP, recommended, instead, that every court nationwide be allowed to open such account subject to the following conditions:

1.  There must be an automatic monthly fund transfer from the trial courts' respective LBP accounts to a mother account under the exclusive control of the Supreme Court; and

2.  All trial courts must be prohibited from making withdrawals from the said LBP accounts.

WHEREAS, in his letter of 28 July 2004 to the Court Administrator, a copy of which is attached as part hereof, Mr. Dominador T. Tersol, COA Director IV and head of Cluster II (Legislative/Judicial/Constitutional Commissions National Government Sector) of the COA, interposed no objection to the aforementioned recommendation of the Court Administrator. TICDSc

WHEREAS, the recommendation of the Court Administrator is a measure that would not only effectively solve the problem of difficulty or delay in bank reconciliation of the JDF, but would also ensure immediate and correct segregation of the JDF fund from the Special Allowance for the Judiciary (SAJ) Fund under Republic Act No. 9227.

WHEREFORE, the recommendation of the Court Administrator is hereby APPROVED subject to the aforementioned conditions, and the Court Administrator is hereby AUTHORIZED to implement it and issue the appropriate guidelines for the purpose.

This Memorandum Order shall take effect upon its issuance.

Issued this 13th day of August 2004.

(SGD.) HILARIO G. DAVIDE, JR.

Chief Justice