CEBU CITY, Philippines - One of three Regional Trial Court (RTC) judges who waived their allowances from the Cebu provincial government will continue to receive his allowance from Cebu City Hall so long as he would be confined to handling drug cases.In a phone interview, RTC Judge Meinrado Paredes explained that since he is assigned to handle drug cases, he would not handle cases involving the Cebu City government. Paredes said he already wrote a letter to the Cebu City government asking them to cancel his name from the roster of judges receiving a P5,000 monthly allowance should he receive a case involving the city. Paredes wrote a letter to the province waiving his monthly allowance out of “sympathy” to RTC Judge Bienvinido Saniel. Saniel last week confirmed that he wrote a letter to the province asking Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia not to restore his name from the roster of judges receiving monthly allowances from Cebu province. In the letter, Saniel said someone told him that Garcia instructed the deletion of his name from the roster of judges receiving monthly allowances from the province of Cebu. He said he could not determine whether or not his allowance was withheld by the province as his ATM also contains his salary and other personal savings. Saniel dismissed the Cebu provincial government's petition for declaratory relief which questioned the authority of Cebu City Mayor Tomas Osmeña to appoint directors of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District (MCWD). The judges receive a monthly allowance of P6,000 from the Cebu provincial government, and P5,000 from the Cebu City government. However, like Paredes, Saniel will continue to receive his allowance from the Cebu City Hall. RTC Judge Gabriel Ingles also wrote letters to both the Cebu provincial and Cebu City government waiving his allowances from them. Paredes said he respects the consensus of the other judges who decided to continue receiving their monthly allowances from the city and provincial government. “I respect the decision of the other judges who decided to continue receiving their allowances, in the same way that they (judges) too would respect our decision,” he said. Other RTC judges decided to continue receiving their allowances from the two local government units last Friday. The decision came out shortly after a closed-door meeting of the judges at the Palace of Justice library last Friday afternoon. RTC Judge Geraldine Faith Econg of Branch 9 said the decision was reached after reading thoroughly the Supreme Court's ruling on the legality of receiving monthly allowances. | 
