Since 1946, laws passed by Congress, including legislation, have been called Republic Acts. [b] Corona has previously questioned the legality of the allegations against him, but the Supreme Court has not ruled on them. This is the first impeachment trial in the history of the Philippines. The trial of former President Joseph Estrada on corruption charges in 2001 was halted when prosecutors resigned, triggering the country`s second “people`s power” revolt that toppled him. The indictment of former Secretary of Defense Enrile for “rebellion with murder” shows that the courts can be independent of the president, but also that powerful people are treated gently. Enrile was arrested on 27 February 1990 for his alleged role in the December 1989 coup attempt, in which more than 100 people died. Because Enrile was powerful, he received an air-conditioned suite in prison, a phone and a computer, and a week later he was released on bail of 100,000 pesos. In June 1990, the Supreme Court declared the charges against him invalid. Another test of the justice system was expected in the 1990s, when criminal and civil charges were to be laid against Imelda Marcos. In 1991, Aquino agreed to allow the former first lady, who could not leave New York without permission from the U.S. Department of Justice, to return to the Philippines to face charges of bribery and corruption. Swiss banking authorities agreed to return about $350 million to the Philippine government only if Marcos was tried and convicted. Marcos did not seem to hesitate to face the Philippine courts.

* There is also some legislative control over the judicial system, with the legislature being able to conduct impeachment proceedings. [30] The first attempt to indict a chief justice in 2003 was crushed by the Supreme Court. [2]: 366–367 Corona was indicted in 2012, the first time a chief justice has been indicted in Philippine history. [30] Impeachment proceedings were also initiated against his successor Maria Lourdes Sereno. However, she was removed through a quo warranto procedure before the impeachment proceedings. [31] “Puno is an unlikely revolutionary. He was appointed to the bank by the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos and, at 67, has only three years left to reach the mandatory retirement age of 70. But that deadline has only pushed Puno to accelerate the pace of its agenda — purging the notoriously corrupt judiciary and creating legal accountability for the recent spate of political assassinations. In an interview, Puno said the killings were “like a repeat of the last years of the Marcos administration.” ~ “Puno, a man so reserved he barely moves in a long interview, has been agile in pushing all segments of the Philippine government to act. Under his leadership, the Supreme Court called for the creation of a separate judicial system for murder cases so that powerful local interests could not influence judicial outcomes.

~ Apart from ordinary judicial systems, special courts have been established to deal with specific cases. These include the Tax Court of Appeal and the Sandiganbayan, which are equivalent to the Court of Appeal. Sharia courts have been established in some parts of the country. Outside the judicial system, a number of quasi-judicial bodies have certain statutory powers. The Philippines has always been a highly controversial society, and the courts have often been used to conduct personal and family disputes. There was a widespread public impression that at least some judges could be bought. Public confidence in the judicial system was particularly shaken in 1988 when a special prosecutor claimed that six Supreme Court justices pressured him to “spare their friends.” The offended judges threatened to summon the prosecutor for contempt. Aquino did not take sides in this dispute. The net effect has been to confirm the cynicism of many Filipinos about the impartiality of the judiciary.

* The Constitution (§ 5) gives the Supreme Court the power to be allowed to exercise the law. The judicial function of admission to the legal profession is exercised by the Supreme Court through an examination board of the Bar Association. The conditions for admission to the Bar are set out in Rule 138, paragraph 2, and Sections 5 and 6 (Academic Requirements). Each applicant for admission must be a Filipino citizen and at least 21 years of age. As far as academic requirements were concerned, he should have taken a four-year preparatory course for law and a four-year law degree. Bar exams are held on the four (4) Sundays in September each year. Lists of lawyers licensed to practise are included in the Supreme Court`s lists of lawyers and in the Court`s Law List. The online version of the list of laws, available from the Supreme Court and the Supreme Electronic Library, contains the annual lists of other members of the Bar Association. Codification is widespread in countries that adhere to the civil law legal system. Spain, a country of civil law, introduced the practice of codification to the Philippines, which it had colonized from the end of the 16th century. Among the codes that Spain applied in the Philippines were the Spanish Civil Code and the Penal Code.

The Supreme Court consists of a President of the Supreme Court and fourteen associate judges who head the judiciary. It has jurisdiction in the first instance to hear cases involving ambassadors, other public ministers and consuls, as well as applications for wrinctive and writs of habeas corpus; It has jurisdiction to appeal in all cases where the constitutionality of a treaty, law, presidential decree, proclamation, ordinance or regulation is challenged. The Supreme Court may also appeal in criminal cases involving life imprisonment. Article 3 of the Constitution prohibits the death penalty “unless Congress provides for it on compelling grounds of heinous crimes.” [Source: Library of Congress, 1991*] Spanish period (1521-1898): 1) The Spanish colonizers brought with them the medieval European penal system, including executions.