5th Week – Intro to Law kahlil.

apolinar

a. What is judicial power?

Judicial power is the power and duty of courts of justice to interpret and to apply the laws
(including the Constitution) to contests or disputes concerning legally recognized rights or duties
between the State and private persons or individuals, or between private persons or individual
litigants, in cases properly brought before the judicial tribunals.

b. What is grave abuse of discretion?

Grave abuse of discretion has been judicially defined to mean “such capricious and arbitrary
exercise of judgment as is equivalent, in the eyes of the law, to lack of jurisdiction,” that is, lack
of authority to act on the matter in dispute.

c. Who wields judicial power?

Judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be
established by law.

d. What are the inferior courts created by law?

 Court of Appeals
 Sandiganbayan
 Court of Tax Appeals
 Regional Trial Courts
 Metropolitan Trial Courts
 Municipal Trial Courts in Cities
 Municipal Trial Courts
 Municipal Circuit Trial Courts
 Shari'a District Courts
 Shari'a Circuit Courts
e. What is the composition of the Supreme Court?

15 members – Chief Justice and 14 Justices

f. What are the qualifications to be a member of the Supreme Court?

Section 7. (1) No person shall be appointed Member of the Supreme Court or any lower collegiate
court unless he is a natural-born citizen of the Philippines. A Member of the Supreme Court must
be at least forty years of age, and must have been for fifteen years or more, a judge of a lower
court or engaged in the practice of law in the Philippines.

(2) The Congress shall prescribe the qualifications of judges of lower courts, but no person may
be appointed judge thereof unless he is a citizen of the Philippines and a member of the Philippine
Bar.

(3) A Member of the Judiciary must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity, and
independence. [This quality has something to do with the qualities of mind and spirit which a
member of the judiciary must possess. It is intended as a guide to the recommending body
(Judicial Bar and Council) and the appointing authority (the President), and as a reminder to the
appointee.]

g. What is the Judicial and Bar Council?

The Judicial and Bar Council of the Philippines is a constitutionally-created body that recommends
appointees for vacancies that may arise in the composition of the Supreme Court, other lower
courts, and the Legal Education Board, and in the offices of the Ombudsman, Deputy Ombudsman
and the Special Prosecutor.

The Constitution provides for the composition of the JBC to include the following:

1. Representatives of the three branches of government as ex-officio members (i.e., the Chief
Justice, the Secretary of Justice, and a member from the Legislature); {{1}}

2. A representative of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines;

3. A professor of law;

4. A retired member of the Supreme Court;

5. A representative from the private sector.

Members from the government are automatically members of the JBC by virtue of their office.
The other four members, however, are appointed by the President and would have to go through
the process of being confirmed by the Commission on Appointments.

h. What cases must be heard en banc?

En banc: or in divisions of 3, 5 or 7 members.

1. All cases involving the constitutionality of a treaty, international or executive agreement, or
law shall be heard by the SC en banc. To declare a treaty, international or executive agreement,
or law, unconstitutional, the concurrence of a majority of the members who actually took part in
the deliberations on the issues in the case and voted thereon is required. The necessary majority
cannot be had, its constitutionality shall be deemed upheld;

2. All other cases including those involving the constitutionality, application or operation of
presidential decrees, proclamations, orders, instructions, ordinances and other regulations which
under the rules of court are required to be heard en banc shall be decided with the concurrence
also of the number provided above;

3. In administrative cases where the decision is for the dismissal of a judge of lower court, the
same majority vote is necessary to order such dismissal;

4. Cases heard by a division shall be decided or resolved with the concurrence likewiseof the sae
majority of members who are at least 3 in number but if such required number is not obtained,
the case shall be decided en banc;

5. Cases modifying or reversing a doctrine or principle of law laid down by the Court in a decision
rendered en banc or in division shall be decided by the court sitting en banc.
i. Discuss Firestone Ceramics v. Court of Appeals.

j. What are the powers of the Supreme Court?

1. Adjudicatory power – Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice:

(a) to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable;
and

(b) to determine whether there has been a grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess
of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or instrumentality of the government.

2. Power of judicial review – It also includes the power:

(a) to pass upon the validity or constitutionality of the laws of the State and the acts of the other
departments of the government;

(b) to interpret them; and

(c) to render binding judgments.

3. Incidental powers – includes incidental powers necessary to the effective discharge of the
judicial functions such as the power to punish persons adjudged in contempt.

k. What is the power of judicial review?

It is the power of the courts, ultimately of the Supreme Court, to interpret the Constitution and
to declare any legislative or executive act invalid because it is in conflict with the fundamental
law.

It is because the courts are the official (but necessarily the only) interpreters of the Constitution
that a study of our Constitution is, in large measure, a study of judicial decisions and opinions,
particularly of the Supreme Court, on the meaning and application of its provisions.

**

SPECIFICS

Section 5. The Supreme Court shall have the following powers:

(1) Exercise original jurisdiction over cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers and
consuls, and over petitions for certiorari, prohibition, mandamus, quo warranto, and habeas
corpus.

(2) Review, revise, reverse, modify, or affirm on appeal or certiorari, as the law or the Rules of
Court may provide, final judgments and orders of lower courts in:

(a) All cases in which the constitutionality or validity of any treaty, international or executive
agreement, law, presidential decree, proclamation, order, instruction, ordinance, or regulation is
in question.

(b) All cases involving the legality of any tax, impost, assessment, or toll, or any penalty imposed
in relation thereto.
(c) All cases in which the jurisdiction of any lower court is in issue.

(d) All criminal cases in which the penalty imposed is reclusion perpetua or higher.

(e) All cases in which only an error or question of law is involved.

(3) Assign temporarily judges of lower courts to other stations as public interest may require.
Such temporary assignment shall not exceed six months without the consent of the judge
concerned.

(4) Order a change of venue or place of trial to avoid a miscarriage of justice.

(5) Promulgate rules concerning the protection and enforcement of constitutional rights, pleading,
practice, and procedure in all courts, the admission to the practice of law, the integrated bar, and
legal assistance to the underprivileged. Such rules shall provide a simplified and inexpensive
procedure for the speedy disposition of cases, shall be uniform for all courts of the same grade,
and shall not diminish, increase, or modify substantive rights. Rules of procedure of special courts
and quasi-judicial bodies shall remain effective unless disapproved by the Supreme Court.

(6) Appoint all officials and employees of the Judiciary in accordance with the Civil Service Law.

Purpose of time limitations: to ease up the clogging of the court dockets and to implement the
right of party litigants to speedy justice under the familiar aphorism “Justice delayed is justice
denied.”

Violation will be a ground for impeachment.

l. What is integration of the bar?

“The IBP came into being when the Supreme Court created on October 5, 1970 the Commission
on Bar Integration which was tasked ‘not only to ascertain the advisability of integration of the
Bar, but even more, to serve as a common vehicle of the Court and the Bar in fashioning a
blueprint for integration and putting the same into actual operation.’ Republic Act No. 6397, which
became effective September 17, 1971, confirmed the power of the Supreme Court to adopt rules
of court to effect the integration of the Philippine Bar. Then on January 9, 1973, the Supreme
Court, by a per curiam resolution, pursuant to its constitutional mandate, ordained the integration
of the Bar in accordance with its Rule 139-A, effective January 16, 1973. Within the next
succeeding months, the IBP was organized. On February 17, 1973, local chapters all over the
country were finally formed and elections for chapter officers were held. Then on March 17, 1973,
the first batch of representatives to the IBP House of Delegates composed of 104 delegates
representing the IBP Chapters nationwide convened in Manila and elected its first set of IBP
Governors.

x-x-x

All Attorneys

The IBP is composed of all Philippine attorneys now numbering about 50,000. All persons whose
names appear in the Roll of Attorneys of the Supreme Court (having qualified for and passed the
Bar examinations and taken their attorney’s oath, unless otherwise disbarred) are members of
the IBP. If any such person does not agree to join the organization and regulations (such as
payments of annual membership dues, now fixed at P1,000), he does not become, or he ceases
to be, an IBP member, and at the same time his name is removed from the Roll of Attorneys.
The effect of the removal is that he ceases to be an attorney. He loses the privilege to practice
law in the Philippines.”

Integration of the Bar is essentially a process by which every member of the Bar is afforded an
opportunity to do his share in carrying out the objectives of the Bar as well as obliged to bear his
portion of its responsibilities. Organized by or under the direction of the State, an integrated Bar
is an official national body of which all lawyers are required to be members. They are, therefore,
subject to all the rules prescribed for the governance of the Bar, including the requirement of
payment of a reasonable annual fee for the effective discharge of the purposes of the Bar, and
adherence to a code of professional ethics or professional responsibility breach of which
constitutes sufficient reason for investigation by the Bar and, upon proper cause appearing, a
recommendation for discipline or disbarment of the offending member.

The integration of the Philippine Bar was obviously dictated by overriding considerations of public
interest and public welfare to such an extent as more than constitutionally and legally justifies
the restrictions that integration imposes upon the personal interests and personal convenience of
individual lawyers.

m. Discuss In Re Atty. Marcial Edillon .

n. What are the periods for deciding cases or resolving matters?

Section 15.

(1) All cases or matters filed after the effectivity of this Constitution must be decided or resolved
within twenty-four months from date of submission for the Supreme Court, and, unless reduced
by the Supreme Court, twelve months for all lower collegiate courts, and three months for all
other lower courts.

(2) A case or matter shall be deemed submitted for decision or resolution upon the filing of the
last pleading, brief, or memorandum required by the Rules of Court or by the court itself.

(3) Upon the expiration of the corresponding period, a certification to this effect signed by the
Chief Justice or the presiding judge shall forthwith be issued and a copy thereof attached to the
record of the case or matter, and served upon the parties. The certification shall state why a
decision or resolution has not been rendered or issued within said period.

(4) Despite the expiration of the applicable mandatory period, the court, without prejudice to
such responsibility as may have been incurred in consequence thereof, shall decide or resolve the
case or matter submitted thereto for determination, without further delay.

o. Discuss Sesbreño v. CA.

p. Discuss Re: Complaint Against Justice Elvi S, Asuncion of the Court of Appeals.