The Roles and Responsibilities of the Philippine Judiciary

The Roles and Responsibilities of the Philippine Judiciary

The Supreme Court en banc approved last June 9, 2020, a resolution allowing the conduct of the oath-taking ceremony of more than 2,000 2019 BAR examination passers on June 25, 2020 via online video conference and linked to a government television network for broadcast.

The Court noted that the current health crisis and COVID-19 pandemic made it not possible to hold the oath-taking ceremony the traditional way.

However, the Supreme Court made it clear in its resolution that the unorthodox oathtaking was to be “pro hac vice.” This means that due to the current pandemic, the resolution was to be exclusive and limited only on the oath-taking of the 2019 BAR passers.

Motherhood is the role of your mother. Does her role come with responsibilities? Responsibility may refer to being in charge of, being the owner of a task, or event. Not doing the tasks is a failure of responsibility.

Courts have roles and responsibilities, too, as organized political institutions. The interpretation of the constitution and settlement of civil and criminal cases are the roles of the judicial branch made up of one Supreme Court and other lower courts. Sandiganbayan and the Court of Tax Appeals are the Special Courts.

In this country, the Doctrine or Principle of the Separation of Powers is observed. The Philippines as a presidential, democratic, and a republican state operates under the three branches or departments of government. The judiciary is the branch of government which administers justice according to law, the legislative (or the Philippine Legislature is a bicameral Congress made up of the House of Representatives and the House of the Senate) tasked to make the laws, and finally, the executive government headed by the President carries out and enforces the laws.

Under the doctrine of the separation of powers the judiciary must remain independent from the other two branches of government. This independence is seen as a vital safeguard against corruption and a cornerstone of democracy.

The courts’ responsibilities are to apply the law, settle disputes, and punish lawbreakers according to the law. Our judicial system is a key aspect of our democratic way of life. It upholds peace, order, and good government.

Citizens look to the judiciary to uphold their rights and governments look to the courts to interpret laws. The judiciary must act without fear of powerful interests, and without favoring individual parties. A court’s ability to deliver justice depends on its power to enforce its rulings. Only a court of appeal can overturn the ruling of a lower court.

Under the doctrine of the separation of powers the judiciary must remain independent from the other two branches of government. This independence is seen as a vital safeguard against corruption and a cornerstone of democracy.

The courts’ responsibilities are to apply the law, settle disputes, and punish lawbreakers according to the law. Our judicial system is a key aspect of our democratic way of life. It upholds peace, order, and good government.

Citizens look to the judiciary to uphold their rights and governments look to the courts to interpret laws. The judiciary must act without fear of powerful interests, and without favoring individual parties. A court’s ability to deliver justice depends on its power to enforce its rulings. Only a court of appeal can overturn the ruling of a lower court.

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1.Impeachment – this is an enquiry into the conduct of public officials who may be accused of culpable violations of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, treason, bribery, graft and corrupt practices, treason, and other high crimes. The penalty here is only removal from office which, however, does not prevent the official so removed from being formally charged in the appropriate court like in Sandiganbayan.

Note: Only the President, Vice-President, fifteen (15) Members of the Supreme Court, seven (7) Members of the Commission on Elections, three (3) Members of the Commission on Audit, three (3) Members of the Civil Service Commission, and the Ombudsman can be impeached.

Impeached were former Philippine President Joseph Estrada, former Chief Justice Renato Corona, and Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

Legal Orders/Processes

Essentially, only the higher courts have the power to review, modify, or alter decisions of the lower courts and quasi-judicial bodies of the government agencies. The following are the higher courts’ powers in the forms of writs or legal documents ordering a person or government entity, or lower courts to perform or to stop performing a specific action, to wit:

• Quo Warranto - legal action requiring a person to show by what warrant an office or franchise is held, claimed, or exercised. An action by the government to recover an office or franchise from an individual unlawfully holding it.

Note: Former SC Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, an appointee of former President Noynoy Aquino, was removed through Quo Warranto, not by Impeachment.

• Certiorari – a legal order commanding a lower court to deliver its record in a case so that the higher court may review it. This is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency.

Note: This is a special civil action directly resorted to

by an aggrieved party to the Supreme Court when there are genuine issues of constitutionality that must be addressed at the most immediate time as no other plain, speedy, and adequate remedy in the ordinary course of law that could free them from the injurious effects of respondents' acts.

• Mandamus is a court order issued by a judge of a superior court at a petitioner’s request compelling someone or agencies to execute a duty that they are legally obligated to complete.

Example: Workers filed a case for illegal dismissal with the National Labor Relations Commission against ABC corporation which the NLRC ruled in favor of the workers and ordered ABC corporation to reinstate the workers to their work and to pay them back wages. Months passed by and without ABC appealing the case to the Court of Appeals, ABC did not reinstate and pay its workers’ back wages. The illegally dismissed workers can file a petition for mandamus to have the NLRC ruling enforced.

• Petition for Habeas corpus (which literally means to "produce the body") is a court order demanding that a public official (such as a warden) deliver an imprisoned individual to the court and show a valid reason for that person's detention.

Example: John Aglipay has been in jail for quite a time but he is not formally charged in court. Now, through petition for habeas corpus, his relatives through a lawyer can file for his release from jail and produce him to the court having jurisdiction over his person and his case.

• Appeal - the process in which cases are reviewed by a higher authority, where parties request a formal change to an official decision penned by the lower court. Appeals function both as a process for error correction as well as a process of clarifying and interpreting law.

Example: If Joana Aglipay, accused of oral defamation and found guilty by the Municipal Trial Court, she can elevate the MTC’s decision to the Regional Trial Court, then if RTC’s decision is adverse to her , she can file an appeal to the Court of Appeals, and if still CA’s decision is adverse to her, she can file an appeal to the Supreme Court whose decision is final.

3.Motion for reconsideration - within the period for taking an appeal, the aggrieved party may move for reconsideration upon the grounds that the evidence is insufficient to justify the decision or final order, or that the decision or final order is contrary to law.

Example: That it is with the court trying the case that the motion for reconsideration be filed with. So, If Joana Aglipay, accused of oral defamation and found guilty by the Municipal Trial Court, she, through her lawyer may file motion for reconsideration with it.

3.Collegiate Court- a court that is composed of several judges or justices who can deliberate a case either en banc or by divisions. Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Court of Tax Appeals, and the Sandiganbayan are collegiate courts.

Note: Court sitting en banc – A collegiate court can deliberate a case either in division of three, five, or seven members. However, court can sit en banc which requires all members of the court to participate in the deliberation of a

case or any matter presented before it. Single-judge courts are the Regional Trial Courts and the four first-level courts.

4.Quasi-judicial body - is a non-judicial body which can interpret law. It is an entity such as an arbitrator or tribunal board, generally of a public administrative agency, which has powers and procedures resembling those of a court of law or judge, and which is obliged to objectively determine facts and draw conclusions from them so as to provide the basis of an official action. Non-lawyers can be part of quasi-judicial bodies.

Essentially, all departments of the executive branch like the Department of Education, National Labor Relations Commission, Commission on Elections, among others, have quasi-judicial bodies to conduct administrative cases. This body after a finding of guilt by the respondent can impose penalty such as reprimand, suspension, or dismissal from service.

Example: A teacher files an administrative case for conduct unbecoming of a public official against her Principal. It is the Disciplinary Committee of the School’s Division to conduct the investigation. The Disciplinary Committee is a quasi-judicial body which is empowered by law to conduct investigation through hearing of the case, issues subpoenas, and impose the penalty if warranted under the circumstances.

Multiple Choice

This is an inquiry into the conduct of public officials who may be accused of culpable violations of the constitution, betrayal of public trust, treason, bribery, graft and corrupt practices, treason, and other high crimes. The penalty here is only removal from office which, however, does not prevent the official so removed from being formally charged in the appropriate court like in Sandiganbayan.

• Certiorari

• Quo Warranto

• Legal Orders/Processes

• Impeachment

Multiple Choice

Essentially, only the higher courts have the power to review, modify, or alter decisions of the lower courts and quasi-judicial bodies of the government agencies. The following

are the higher courts’ powers in the forms of writs or legal documents ordering a person or government entity, or lower courts to perform or to stop performing a specific action, to wit:

• Mandamus

• Certiorari

• Legal Orders/Processes

• Quo Warranto

Multiple Choice

Legal action requiring a person to show by what warrant an office or franchise is held, claimed, or exercised. An action by the government to recover an office or franchise from an individual unlawfully holding it.

Note: Former SC Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno, an appointee of former President Noynoy Aquino, was removed through Quo Warranto, not by Impeachment.

• Petition for Habeas corpus

• Quo Warranto

• Certiorari

• Mandamus

Multiple Choice

A legal order commanding a lower court to deliver its record in a case so that the higher court may review it. This is a court process to seek judicial review of a decision of a lower court or government agency.

• Mandamus

• Certiorari

• Petition for Habeas corpus

• Appeal

Multiple Choice

____________is a court order issued by a judge of a superior court at a petitioner’s request compelling someone or agencies to execute a duty that they are legally obligated to complete.

Example: Workers filed a case for illegal dismissal with the National Labor Relations Commission against ABC corporation which the NLRC ruled in favor of the workers and ordered ABC corporation to reinstate the workers to their work and to pay them back wages. Months passed by and without ABC appealing the case to the Court of Appeals, ABC did not reinstate and pay its workers’ back wages. The illegally dismissed workers can file a petition for mandamus to have the NLRC ruling enforced.

• Appeal

• Mandamus

• Petition for Habeas corpus

• Motion for reconsideration

Multiple Choice

(Which literally means to "produce the body") is a court order demanding that a public official (such as a warden) deliver an imprisoned individual to the court and show a valid reason for that person's detention.

Example: John Aglipay has been in jail for quite a time but he is not formally charged in court. Now, through petition for habeas corpus, his relatives through a lawyer can file for his release from jail and produce him to the court having jurisdiction over his person and his case.

• Petition for Habeas corpus

• Appeal

• Motion for reconsideration

• Mandamus

Multiple Choice

Is a non-judicial body which can interpret law. It is an entity such as an arbitrator or tribunal board, generally of a public administrative agency, which has powers and procedures resembling those of a court of law or judge, and which is obliged to objectively determine facts and draw conclusions from them so as to provide the basis of an official action. Non-lawyers can be part of quasi-judicial bodies.

• Collegiate Court-

• Quasi-judicial body

• Motion for reconsideration

• Certiorari

Match

Match column A with letters of the correct answers on column B. Use a

separate sheet of paper for your answers.

• Its grounds are the culpable violations of the

  constitution, betrayal of public trust, treason, bribery, graft and corrupt practices, and other high crimes.

• Used to refer broadly to the courts, the judges,

  magistrates, adjudicators and other support personnel who run the system.

• A special graft having jurisdiction over violations of

  Republic Act No. 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, as amended, and Chapter II, Section 2, Title VII, Book II of the Revised Penal Code.

• Has jurisdiction to review decisions of the

  Commissioner of Internal Revenue, Bureaus of

  Customs, or Regional Trial Court in tax cases or other

  matters arising under the National Internal Revenue

  or other laws administered by the Bureau of Internal

  Revenue.

• The highest court of the Philippines

Philippine Judiciary

Sandiganbayan

Supreme Court

Impeachment

Court of Tax Appeals

• Philippine Judiciary

• Sandiganbayan

• Supreme Court

• Impeachment

• Court of Tax Appeals