{"id":393639,"date":"2023-06-13T06:06:55","date_gmt":"2023-06-12T20:06:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=393639"},"modified":"2023-06-13T06:06:55","modified_gmt":"2023-06-12T20:06:55","slug":"judiciarys-always-underfunded-placed-at-bottom-of-totem-pole","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/judiciarys-always-underfunded-placed-at-bottom-of-totem-pole\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Judiciary\u2019s always underfunded, placed at bottom of totem pole\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_393645\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-393645\" style=\"width: 960px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Alexandro-C.-Castro-mug-PW.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-393645\" src=\"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/06\/Alexandro-C.-Castro-mug-PW-1024x531.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"960\" height=\"498\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-393645\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Alexandro C. Castro<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In his personal observation and experience in the last 34 years, the Office of Management and Budget has unintentionally placed the Judiciary\u2019s budget request at an Executive Branch level and not as a separate branch of government, according to CNMI Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexandro Castro.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAs a result, the Judiciary is always at the bottom of the totem pole and underfunded,\u201d said Castro, speaking at the House of Representatives Ways and Means Committee hearing last Friday on the Judiciary\u2019s 2024 proposed budget.<\/p>\n<p>To resolve this issue, the chief justice recommends a different approach on the budget process this year.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFirst, let us acknowledge that there are three branches of government and fund those branches accordingly,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>Because of the CNMI\u2019s fiscal condition today, the Judiciary supports Gov. Arnold I. Palacios\u2019 submission with respect to the personnel category of $5.8 million, Castro said.<\/p>\n<p>However, the Judiciary \u201cstrenuously opposes\u201d the $300,000 allocation in the \u201call others\u201d category in the proposed budget. Castro said this amount will only allow the courts to operate roughly three months into the fiscal year and then they have to close the doors of the courthouses on Saipan, Tinian, and Rota. Knowing Palacios and Lt. Gov. David M. Apatang, Castro said he does not think the two officials will support such an unintended consequence.<\/p>\n<p>He said the Judiciary needs roughly an additional $900,000 on top of the $300,000 in the \u201call others\u201d category, bringing their request up to $1.2 million.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThat amount, $1.2 million, sounds too much for a department and I agree. But as a third branch of our government, that $1.2 million request is more than reasonable and, more importantly, essential,\u201d Castro pointed out.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In his personal observation and experience in the last 34 years, the Office of Management&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":23,"featured_media":393646,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-393639","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393639","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/23"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=393639"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/393639\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/393646"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=393639"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=393639"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=393639"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}