CEBU City-based judges welcomed proposals in Congress to grant them additional compensation due to job-related risks and threats.
“I heard about the bill, but have not read it yet. If it’s good, why not? Our job is definitely high-risk,” Judge Ramon Daomilas of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 11 told Cebu Daily News yesterday.
House Bill No. 5804 proposed by Quezon City Rep. Winston Castelo will grant tax-exempt hazard pay equivalent to 20 percent of the basic salary of RTC judges.
Judge James Stewart Ramon Himalaloan, acting presiding judge of the RTC Branch 24, said he hopes the hazard pay will be given across the board to all judges.
“We want all RTC judges to receive that (hazard pay). Being in a safe place like Cebu doesn’t make us immune to threats,” he said.
Himalaloan said Castelo’s version of the bill may cover only those judges confronted with constant threats in Mindanao.
Last year, Sen. Nancy Binay filed a similar bill which aims to grant hazard pay to all RTC judges.
Under Binay’s proposal, each RTC judge will get a hazard pay equivalent to 25 percent of their basic monthly salary.