One would think the Supreme Court has the final say on fiscal issues – given its recent big decisions on how the government has been using, or missing, taxpayers’ money. But the Philippines’ highest court remains at the mercy of its co-equal branches in government for its yearly budget. Despite the Aquino administration’s early promise to help reform the judiciary, it continued to put the judiciary in the category of the least-funded government institutions, getting less than one percent of the total budget pie. SC Justice Marvic Leonen, an appointee of Aquino, noted that while the judiciary’s budget from 2011 to 2014 rose in absolute terms, it has not actually increased in percentage terms in the context of the entire government budget. In fact, it even decreased in 2014 in percentage terms, constituting only 0.82% of the P2.265 trillion ($US51.5 billion) national budget for the year.
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