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Graft-busting work will continue with or without the Anti-Corruption Court.

That was the vow made by the Corruption Eradication Commission (KPK) on Thursday following news that the Anti-Corruption Court, which prosecutes the cases it investigates, may be disbanded.

“As long as the KPK still exists, with or without the Anti-Corruption Court, we must continue to work because that’s what we are paid to do,” said Bibit Samad Rianto, KPK deputy chairman.

The current court has its legal basis in a 2002 law on the KPK. The Constitutional Court, however, has ruled that the mechanism under which the court was drawn was unconstitutional and ordered that a new law be passed before Dec. 19 this year or the court must be disbanded.

The House of Representatives, however, has yet to pass the Anti -Corruption Court bill, and President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono said on Wednesday that the bill was not among the priority ones aimed for passage before the current legislature’s term ends on Sept. 30.

“We have already let [the president] know that the anti-graft court bill has not yet been passed,” Bibit told reporters after a meeting with other KPK deputies and Attorney General Hendarman Supandji on Thursday.

The meeting, he said, was partly aimed at assuring prosecutors that the KPK still functioned, even though its chairman, Antasari Azhar, was suspended and detained by the police for his alleged role in a murder case.

Bibit said the commission would follow the government’s decision regarding the court bill. There are still contentious articles in the bill that need to be threshed out, like the need to establish provincial court branches and the composition of the panel of judges. “If the court must have branches at the provincial level, the KPK will also open regional branches,” Bibit said. “We believe we can cooperate with local police and prosecutors.”