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MANILA, Philippines – Handling election cases boosted the earnings of Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, according to the Commission on Audit’s (COA) Report on Salaries and Allowances (ROSA) for 2023.
Caguioa was the highest paid justice last year and the 13th most paid government official with P19.6 million. The SC justice’s earnings came from his salary and allowances as a sitting associate justice, as chairperson of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET), and member of the Presidential Electoral Tribunal (PET).
Under SC, Caguioa received a total of P16.4 million. His earnings under the High Court include: P3.8 million for his basic pay, P7.4 million for Personnel Economic Relief Allowance (PERA)/ Additional Compensation (ADCOM)/ honorarium, P3.5 million allowances, P1.3 million bonus, incentives, and benefits, and P354,000 for discretionary and Extraordinary and Miscellaneous Expenses (EME).
He received over P3 million for PET (Total: P1.75 million – P1.2 million PERA/ ADCOM/ Honorarium and P550,000 in allowances) and HRET (Total: P1.49 million – P1.1 million in allowances and P354,000 for discretionary and EME).
The PET, whose chairperson and members are SC justices, is the sole judge for contests related to the election, returns, and qualifications of the president and vice president. Meanwhile, the HRET is the sole judge of all contests relating to Members of the House of Representatives.
The HRET is composed of three SC justices and six members of the lower chamber.
Judiciary members in top ranks
Behind Caguioa is Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo who earned P16.3 million in 2023. The High Court’s chief magistrate was the 18th highest paid government official last year.
As chief justice, Gesmundo’s basic pay was P4.58 million he received P24,000 for PERA/ ADCOM/ honorarium, P6.3 million allowances, P2.98 million bonus, incentives, and benefits, and P354,000 for discretionary and EME. As PET’s chairperson, Gesmundo received P1.4 million honorarium and P610,000 allowances.
Aside from Caguioa and Gesmundo, other members of the judiciary, including Ombudsman Samuel Martires, are among the top paid officials.
According to ROSA, earnings from the PET boosted the SC justices’ allowances last year.
In 2020, the vice presidential electoral protest filed by President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. against then-vice president Leni Robredo also boosted the magistrates’ earnings. This made former senior associate justice Estela Perlas Bernabe the first justice since 2009 to make it to the top 5 of the highest-paid government officials.
The COA releases ROSA annually as part of its mandate to ensure transparency in the government. ROSAs are released “to effectively monitor emoluments paid to the high-ranking government officials holding multiple positions in various government agencies.”
In addition, these earnings do not reflect the overall worth of officials since only their Statements of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth contain information about officials’ assets, among others. – Rappler.com
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