The chief justice gets $130,000 a year while each of the two associate justices are paid $126,000.
The presiding judge receives $123,000 while each of the four associate judges get $120,000.
In a letter to Speaker Froilan C. Tenorio, Covenant-Saipan, Chief Justice Miguel S. Demapan, Superior Court Presiding Judge Robert C. Naraja and Associate Judge David A. Wiseman said the judicial branch should be given the opportunity to offer testimony before the House of Representatives vote on Senate Legislative Initiative 17-7.
Offered by Senate President Paul A. Manglona, Ind.-Rota, the proposal will amend the CNMI Constitution to allow for the reduction in pay of justices and judges if austerity measures are implemented by the government.
The Senate has already passed the legislative initiative which needs a three-fourths vote of both houses of the Legislature so it can be placed on the ballot of the next CNMI general election in 2012. It does not require the governor’s approval.
The House is scheduled to hold a session tomorrow.
Demapan, Naraja and Wiseman expressed “grave concern” on how the initiative was worded and noted that the judicial branch is a separate entity of the government that should be free from political maneuverings.
“Judges and justices do not have political constituents.… [A] judge’s fidelity must be to the enforcement of the rule of law regardless of perceived popular will. We are also not leaders…even though the Legislature or the executive branch may be considered such,” they told Tenorio.
Both houses of the Legislature have killed three different bills seeking to mandate pay cuts on public sector employees.
But the salaries of the governor, the lt. governor, lawmakers, the justices and judges cannot be reduced without amending the CNMI Constitution.
Manglona has since introduced three separate legislative initiatives to remove the constitutional protection of these officials’ salaries.
All three initiatives, including S.L.L. 17-7, now await House action.
Demapan, Castro and Wiseman said their positions entail a lot of sacrifices.
“Our position as members of the judiciary carries with it an abundance of sacrifices, none of which are mandated on elected officials. Our judicial code of conduct governs our professional conduct in court as well as our personal and social conduct out of court. As a result of our positions as members of the judiciary, there are numerous sacrifices that we must indulge in that more or less mandate our lifestyle,” they said.
“The fact that the legislative branch of the government is restricted by the Constitution from interfering with judicial salaries during our term of office should result in the possibility that it is not in the legislative environment of propriety to do so in an indirect way. Such restrictions are imbedded in the principles inherent in having the three separate branches of the government,” they added.
