By Gemma Q. Casas
Variety News Staff

THE chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee says they will exempt the judicial branch from the administration’s 39.5 percent budget reduction proposal, but he didn’t disclose what other government agencies and program will have to “absorb” the spending cuts.
Rep. Crispin M. Ogo, Covenant-Rota, said the committee has agreed to limit the judicial branch’s fiscal year 2007 budget reduction to 15.6 percent, and should be left with $3.7 million of its original appropriation of more than $4.4 million.
“Our position is to assist the courts. Give them enough funding to operate,” Ogo told Variety.
Ogo’s committee met with Chief Justice Miguel Demapan and other judicial officials on Friday afternoon.
Demapan earlier lashed out at Gov, Benigno R. Fitial over the budget reduction issue.
Demapan told the governor: “I realize you don’t view the judiciary as ‘essential.’ Please understand that I don’t view your opinion of the judiciary’s budgetary needs as ‘essential’ either.”
Press Secretary Charles P. Reyes Jr. said the administration respects the chief justice’s opinion but added that the judicial branch is “not immune” from the CNMI’s economic crunch.
In his statement to the House on Friday, Demapan said: “I did not say that the judicial branch is immune from the government’s financial crisis. Like the other branches, the judicial branch should be supportive of controlling expenses in times of a significant drop in revenues. (But) justice is never cheap!”
Ogo said based on his committee’s initial analysis, the judicial branch’s request could be accommodated because some government agencies may have a budget surplus such as the Department of Corrections.
But Ogo said they have yet to confirm this information and will need to meet with Corrections and other agencies.
“We have ideas — potential solutions,” said Ogo but he refused to elaborate.
According to the chief justice, about 85 percent of their budget goes to personnel and 15 percent to operations. “As a result, if the judicial branch’s maintenance budget is cut, people are cut…. Mr. Chairman, and members of this committee, we have the best judiciary in the Pacific. ... We have received calls from all over the U.S. jurisdictions commenting on the many good things we do in our judiciary. I ask you today, I beg of you today, not to turn the clock back. Maintain the quality of our judiciary by supporting our quest to make the judicial branch an essential branch.”