Philippine Politics And Governance 11

The Philippine Judiciary

MELC: Analyze the roles and responsibilities of the Philippine Judiciary.

The Philippine Judiciary

The Judiciary is also known as the court system. It is the system of courts that interprets and applies the law in the
name of state. The Judicial branch evaluates laws and check if it is constitutional. It also provides a mechanism for the
resolution of disputes.
The 1987 Philippine Constitution did not only restore the presidential system of government with its separation of
powers and checks-and-balances and the bicameral Congress. Equally important was the constitution also restored the
independence of the judiciary in the country. An independent judiciary, like an independent Congress, is essential to the
functioning of a democracy.
According to Lim (2010, 159), “the role, function, and the place of the judiciary have more to do with upholding
and ensuring ‘constitutional liberalism’ rather than democracy.” He further argued that “We look to the judicial system to
guarantee, safeguard, and defend the institutional arrangements and rules that make the statement a “constitutional liberal
state” and the regime a constitutional democracy: a constitutional that is supreme, and provides for mutual checks and
balance, separation of powers, and individual rights and liberties.”
In the context of the Philippines, with the country’s Martial Law dictatorial experience under Marcos from 1972 to
1986, upholding and ensuring constitutional liberalism and democracy are mutually inclusive values. Hence, an
independent judiciary is indispensable to the country’s democracy.

Judicial Power
Article VIII, Section 1 states that the judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts
as may be provided by law. The Supreme Court is the highest court of the land and the Chief Justice of the Philippines takes
its position. The judicial power includes the duty the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights which
are legally demandable and enforceable. This branch determines whether or not there has been a grave abuse of discretion
amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part and instrumentality of the government. It is made up of a Supreme
Court and lower courts.

Judicial Independence
Judicial independence “insulates the judiciary from the political branches of the government (presidency and
Congress) and partisan politics. Its goal is also to preserve the judicial system against the alteration of public opinion and
the corrupting effects of opaque illegal payoffs” (Lim 2010, 160).
The 1987 Philippine Constitution contains several provisions that guarantee the judicial independence or
independence of the judiciary. These are the provisions on:
1. the security of tenure of judicial officers;
2. the judiciary’s fiscal autonomy;
3. judicial self-regulation or self-administration;
4. the appointment of justices and judges; and
5. impeachment.
Article VIII, Sections 2 and 11 provide for the security of tenure of members of the Supreme Court and judges of
the courts. Section provides states that “No law shall be passed reorganizing the Judiciary when it undermines the security
of tenure of its members.” The definition of security of tenure is set in Section 11 which states that “The members of the
Supreme Court and judges of lower courts shall hold office during good behaviour until they reach the age of seventy years
or become incapacitated to discharge the duties of their office.”
Article VIII, Section 3 mandates that, “The Judiciary shall enjoy fiscal autonomy. Appropriations for the judiciary
may not be reduced by the legislature below the amount appropriated for the previous year and, after approval, shall be
automatically and regularly based. Reinforcing Section 3 is section 10 which mandates that “The
salary of the Chief Justice and of the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court and the judges of lower courts shall be fixed
by law. During their continuance in office, their salary shall not be decreased.”
A number of provisions define judicial self-regulation or self-administration of the judiciary of the Philippines
under Article VIII;
Section 5 provides one of the powers of the Supreme Court, the highest court of the land, to, “Appoint all officials
and employees of the Judiciary in accordance with the Civil Service Law.”
Section 6 provides that “The Supreme Court shall have administrative supervision over all courts and the
personnel thereof.”
Section 11 authorizes the Supreme Court en banc “to discipline judges of lower courts, or order their dismissal by
a vote of a majority of the Members who actually took part in the deliberations on the issues in the case and voted thereon.”
Unlike all other appointees of the President of the Philippines, only the members of the judiciary do not require
consent or confirmation from the Commission on Appointments which is made up members of the Senate and the House of

Page 1 of 3
Representatives. Article VIII, Section 9 states that “The members of the Supreme Court and judges of lower courts shall be
appointed by the President... for every vacancy. Such appointment need no confirmation”.
While members of the judiciary are appointed by the President, the latter cannot remove them from office since
they enjoy security of tenure. Instead, members of the judiciary can be removed from office only by impeachment. Article
XI, Section 2 provides that, “The President, the Vice President, the Members of the Supreme Court, the Members of the
Constitutional Commissions, and the Ombudsman may be removed from the office, on impeachment for, and conviction of,
culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, or betrayal of public trust...”

The Philippine Court System

The court system in the Philippines consists of the Supreme Court composed of a Chief Justice and fourteen
Associate Justices. Under the Supreme Court are four hierarchical layers: first-level courts, second-level courts, Court of
Appeals, and the Sandiganbayan, a court that handles corruption cases against prominent officials.

All the courts in the Philippine judicial system are vested with judicial power. What demarcates them, however, is
the type of jurisdiction that is given to them. General courts or courts with general jurisdiction and special courts or courts
with special or limited jurisdiction have different jurisdictions. General courts are authorized to hear, try, and decide all
types of actions (civil, criminal, and special proceedings). Special Courts, on the other hand, are mandated by law to hear,
try, and decide only specific types of actions. Special courts are Sandiganbayan, Court of Tax Appeals, Shari’a District Courts
and Shari’a Circuit Courts.
The first-level courts consist of the Metropolitan Trial Courts (MeTC) based in Metro Manila and their
counterparts in cities outside Metro Manila, the Municipal Trial Courts in Cities (MTCC); as well as the Municipal Trial
Court (MTC) which are found in all municipalities that are not part of municipal circuits; and the Municipal Circuit Trial
Courts (MCTC) intended for two to three small municipalities that are too small to have their own MTCs.

The second-level courts are made up of Regional Trial Courts (RTC), formerly known as the Courts of First
Instance until 1983. There is one RTC for each of the 13 judicial regions of the Philippines. The bigger regions can have
several branches located in key cities throughout the region.

The Court of Appeals is the second highest tribunal of the Philippines. It reviews the decisions and final orders of
all the Regional Trial Courts. Also, the CA reviews decisions and resolutions in administrative cases of the Ombudsman, and
those of the Department of Justice and other agencies exercising quasi-judicial functions, including the Office of the
President (Court of Appeals website).

The Sandiganbayan is the present anti-graft court (Art XI, Sec 4). It conducts “expeditious trials of criminal and
civil cases involving offenses committed by public officers and employees, including those employed in government-owned
or controlled corporations” (Sandiganbayan website).

The qualifications to become a member of the Sandiganbayan are as follows:

 a natural-born citizen of the Philippines;
 at least 40 years of age
Page 2 of 3
 has been a judge of a court for at least ten years, or been engaged in the practice of law in the Philippines or has held
office requiring admission to the bar as a prerequisite for at least ten years.

The Shari ‘a Courts are equivalent to the Municipal Circuit Trial Courts. They were established in certain
municipalities in Mindanao where the Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines is being enforced.
In the exercise of legislative power, Congress may abolish any or all lower courts and replace them with other
courts subject to the limitation that the organization shall not undermine the security of tenure. (Section 2, paragraph 2).
The Supreme Court is the highest court and the only constitutional court in the Philippines being specifically
provided for in the Constitution. Hence, it cannot be abolished by law (Manuel 1999).

ACTIVITY. (PERFORMANCE TASK)“ JUDGE ME NOT”

Getting an inspiration from the responsibilities of a judge that decide the cases brought to him/ her. Give 2 specific
situations or instances in your life that you also possess the qualities of a “good judge”. Be guided by the rubric below.
Write on a whole sheet of paper.

20 15 10 8
Criteria
Outstanding Very Satisfactory Satisfactory Fair
Essay is well Essay is somewhat Essay is fairly Essay is poorly organized
Content and
organized and organized and organized and and explained.
Organization
explained explained explained
No spelling, Few spelling and A number of spelling So many spelling,
Grammar usage punctuation or punctuations errors, punctuations or punctuation and
and mechanics grammatical minor grammatical grammatical errors. grammatical errors that it
errors. errors. interferes with the meaning.

Page 3 of 3