03 JUDICIAL BRANCH

Question 1

Where is judicial power vested?

Answer 1

CONST. Art. VIII. SECTION 1. The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may be established by law.

Question 2

What is judicial power?

Answer 2

Judicial power includes:
1. the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights which are legally demandable and enforceable, and
2. to determine whether or not 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. [CONST. Art. VIII. SECTION 1.]

Question 3

What is the jurisdiction of the Supreme Court?

Answer 3

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.

Question 4

The power of Congress in relation to the jurisdiction of courts

Answer 4

SECTION 2. The Congress shall have

the power to define, prescribe, and apportion the jurisdiction of various courts

but may not deprive the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction over cases enumerated in Section 5 hereof.

No law shall be passed reorganizing the Judiciary when it undermines the security of tenure of its Members.

Question 5

What is the power of judicial review?

Answer 5

The power judicial review is the power of the courts to test the validity of executive and legislative acts for their conformity with the Constitution. Through such power, the judiciary enforces and upholds the supremacy of the Constitution.

Question 6

What are the requisites of judicial review?

Answer 6

The requisites of judicial review are:
1. Actual case controversy
2. Locus standi - personal and substantial interest of the parties
3. Earliers opportunity - the exercise of judicial review is pleaded at the earliers opportunity; and
4. Lis Mota - the constitutional question raised is the very lis mota of the case [i.e. the matter cannot be resolved without ruling on the constitutional question]

Question 7

What is an “actual case controversy”?

Answer 7

An actual case or controversy is one that involves a conflict of legal rights, an assertion of opposing legal claims susceptible of judicial resolutions;

It must not be moot or academic nor based on extra-legal or other similar considerations not cognizable by the courts.

Not included in the scope of actual case controversy are questions of policy or wisdome, otherwsie referred to as political questions

Question 8

What is ripeness?

Answer 8

Ripeness is a concept subsumed in actual case or controversy

A case is ripe for adjudication when the challenged governmental act is completed action such that there is a direct, concrete, and adverse effect on the petitioner.

Question 9

What is mootness?

Answer 9

Mootness - a case is moot and academic when it ceases to present a justiciable controversy by virtue of supervening events, so that a declaration thereon would be of no practical use or value.

Generally courts decline jurisdiction over such cases and dismiss it on the ground of mootness.

Question 10

What are the exceptions to mootness?

Answer 10

Exceptions to mootness - a case, otherwise moot and academic, may be decided by a court upon a determination that:
1. There is a grave violation of the Constitution;
2. The situation is of exceptional character and paramount public interest is involved;
3. The constitutional issue raised requires formulation of controlling principles to guide the bench, the bar and the public; or
4. the case is capable of repetition yet evading review

Question 11

What is locus standi?

Answer 11

Locus standi is regarded as a right of appearance in a court of justice on a given question. The person challenging an act as unconstitutional must have and present “standing” to challenge; he must have a personal and substantial interest in the case such that he has sustained or will sustain, direct injury as a result of its enforcement (Direct injury test).

Question 12

The four types of non-traditional suitors

Answer 12

1. Taxpayer standing - there must be a claim of illegal disbursement of public funds or that the tax measure is unconstitutional;
2. Voter standing - there must be a shwoing of obvious interest in the validity of the election law in question;
3. Citizen standing - concerned citizens; there msut be a shwoing that the issues raised are of transcendental importance which must be settled early; and
4. Legislator standing - there must be a claim that the official action complained of infringes upon their prerogatives as legislators.

Question 13

Exceptions to the concerned citizen

Answer 13

GR: Concerned citizend standing must show that the issue is of transcendental importance.
XPNs:
1. The ordinary citizen may file a suit to challenge the fatual basis of the declaration of ML or suspension of HC; ad
2. When suit is predicated on public right such as the right to information.

Question 14

Third party standing

Answer 14

Just tertii - an exception to the direct injury rule;

A litigant may file a case on behalf of third parties when the following criteria concur:
1. The litigant must have suffered an injury in fact, thus giving him or her a sufficiently concrete interest in the outcome of the issue in dispute;
2. The litigant msut have a close relation to the third party; and
3. There must exist some hindrance to the third party’s ability to protect his or her own interests.

Question 15

The doctrine of “transcendental importance”

Answer 15

The doctrine of “transcendental importance” provides that a case may be heard by the SC even when the requirement of locus standi is not met. This is an exception to the rule on locus standi

There is no doctrinal definition of transcendental importance. But the ff. instructive determinants have been formulated by J. Feliciano in a separate opinion:
1. The character of the fudns or other assets involved in the case;
2. The presence of a clear case of disregard of a constitutional or statutory prhoibition by the public respondent agency or instrumentality of the government; and
3. The lack of any other party with a more direct and specific interest in raising the questions being raised.

A mere invocation of transcendental importance in the pleading is not enough for a court to set aside procedural rules.

Whether an issue is of transcendantl importance is a matter determined on a case-to-case basis. An allegation of transcendental importance must be supported by the proper allegations.

Question 16

Earliest opportunity

Answer 16

A constitutional challenge msut be brought at the earliest opportunity.

This entails that the issue be interposed in the pleadings before a competent court, such that, if the issue is not raised in the pleadings before that competent court, it cannot be considered at the trial and, if not considered in the trial, it cannot be considered on appeal.

Two tests: Vertical test and Horizontal test

Vertical test - raise constitutional issue at the first level
Horizontal test - raise the issue as soon as the constitutional objection becomes apparent

Question 17

Lis Mota

Answer 17

List Mota - (a) the constitutional issue must be properly presented; (b) its resolution is necessary to a determination of the case

Question 18

Political question doctrine

Answer 18

Political questions refer to those questions which:
1. under the Constitution, are to be decided by the people in their sovereign capacity, or
2. in regard to which full discretionary authority has been delegated to the legislative or executive branch of government

When political questions are involved, the COnstitution limits the determination as to whether there has been grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of the official whose action is being questioned.

Question 19

Indicators of political question in Baker v. Carr

Answer 19

Baker v. Carr offers what is considered a classif formulation prominent on the surface of any case held to involve a political question:
1. A textually demonstrable constitutional commitment of the issue to a coordinate political department; or
2. a lack of judicially discoverable and manageable standards for resolving it; or
3. the impossibility of deciding wihtout an initial policy determination of a kind clearly for non-judicial discretion; or
4. the impossibility of a court’s undertaking independent resolution without expressing lack of the respect due coordinate branches of government; or
5. An unusual need for unquestioning adherence to a political decision already made; or
6. the potentiality of embarrassment from multifarious pronouncements by various departments on the one question.

Question 20

Define grave abuse of discretion

Answer 20

Jurisprudence has defined grave abuse of discretion to mean the capricious or whimsical exercise of judgment that is so patent and gross as to amount to an evasion of positive duty or a virtual refusal to perform a duty enjoined by law, or to act at all in contemplation of law, as where the power is exercised in an arbitrary and despotic manner by reason of passion or hostility.

Question 21

Doctrine of operative fact

Answer 21

The doctrine of operative fact is an exception to the general rule that an unconstitutoinal act has no legal effect. GR: a void law or administative act cannot be the source of legal rights or duties.

The doctrine of oeprative fact provides that a judicial declaration of invalidity may not necessarily obliterate all the the effects and consequences of a void act prior to such declaration.

Question 22

Requirement for the application of the doctrine of operative fact

Answer 22

For operative fact doctrine to apply, there must be a legislative or executive measure, meaning a law or executive issuance, that is invalidated by the court. From the passage of such law or promulgation of such executive issuance until its validation by the court, the effects of the law or executive issuance, when relied upon bythe public in good faith, may have to be recognized as valid.

An administrative practice is neither a law nor an executive issuance.

Question 23

Fiscal Autonomy of the judiciary

Answer 23

The judiciary’s fiscal autonomy is guaranteed by Article VIII Sec. 3 of the Constitution. Under this provision, the appropriation of the Judiciary may not be reduced by the legislature below the amoutn appropriated for the previous year and, after approval, shall be automatically and regularly released.

Question 24

Qualifications of members of the judicial department

Answer 24

Supreme Court and collegiate courts (Sec. 7)
1. Natural born citizen
2. Member of the SC - at least 40 y.o.
3. Member of the SC - must have been for 15 yrs or more a judge of a lower court or engaged in the practice of law in the Philippines
4. SC vacancies msut be filled within 90 days from vacancy

Lower courts
1. Citizen of the Philippines
2. Member of the Philippine Bar
3. As prescribed by Congress
4. For collegiate and lower courts, vacancy must be filled 90 days from submission of list.

SC appointment is an exception to the ban on midnight appointments (judiciary in general)

Question 25

Parameters for members of the judicial department

Answer 25

Members of the judicial department
1. Ascends to office by appointment
2. CIIP (Sec. 7(3)) - Must be a person of provence Competence, Integrity, Probity, and Independence
3. Tenure (Sec. 11) - Hold office on good behavior until they have reached age of 70 or become incapactiated; No law shall be passed reorganizing the Judiciary when it undermines the security of tenure of its Members (Sec. 2)
4. Discipline (Sec. 11) - Supreme Court En Banc shall have disciplinary power over lower court judges
5. Salaries and Emoluments (Sec. 10) - Fixed by law; during their continuance in office their salary shall not be decreased

Question 26

The Judicial and Bar Council

Answer 26

Judicial and Bar Council
1. Created under the Constitution (Sec. 8)
2. Under the supervision of the Supreme Court
3. Principal function of recommending appointees to the Judiciary and exercise such other functions and duties as the Supreme Court may assign to it

Question 27

What is the composition of the JBC?

Answer 27

Composition of the JBC:
1. Chief Justice as ex officio Chairman
2. Secretary of Justice as ex officio member
3. A representative of Congress as ex officio member
4. A representative of the Integrated Bar
5. A professor of law
6. A retired Justice of the Supreme Court
7. Representative of the private sector

Question 28

How many members of the JBC is congress entitled to?

Answer 28

Jurisprudence provides that Congress can only have 1 member in the JBC, contrary to the argument that it should have 2 because of 2 houses. It is up to them how to determine who sits.

Question 29

Due process in the JBC

Answer 29

Jardeleza case

Question 30

Who supervises and takes care of the JBC’s appropriations?

Answer 30

The SC supervises the JBC and provides in the annual budget of the Court the appropriations for the JBC.

Question 31

Can the President appoint his first-cousin to the Supreme Court?

Answer 31

Yes. the prohibition in Sec. 13 Art. VII does not include the judiciary.

ART. VII Sec. 13 The spouse and relatives by consanguinity or affinity within the fourth civil degree of the President shall not during his tenure be appointed as members of the Constitutional Commissions, or the Office of the Ombudsman, or as Secretaries, Undersecretaries, chairmen or heads of bureaus or offices, including government-owned or controlled corporations and their subsidiaries.

Question 32

Composition of the Supreme Court

Answer 32

Composition of the Supreme Court
1. The Supreme Court shall be composed of Chief Justice and fourteen Associate Justices

Question 33

Rule on modifying or reversing doctrine or pinciple of law

Answer 33

No doctrine or principle of law laid down by the Court in a decision rendered en banc or in division may be modified or reversed except by the Court sitting en banc.

Question 33

Can SC Justice sit in holdover capacity?

Answer 33

SC justice cannot sit in holdover capacity. Art. VIII Sec. 11 provides that SC justices hold office until they reach the age of 70 or become incapacitated to discharge their duties. Hence, no right to holdover.

Question 33

How the SC may sit

Answer 33

The SC may sit en banc or in divisions of 3, 5, or 7 members
a. Constitutionality goest to the Banc
b. Cases and matters heard by division but required number not reached goes to the Banc

Question 34

Jurisdiction of the SC

Answer 34

1. Original jurisdiction - over cases affecting ambassadors, other public miisters and consuls, and over petitions for certiorari, prohibition, mandamus, quo warranto, and habeas corpus
2. Appellate jurisdiction (review, revise, reverse, modify or affirm)
   -Constitutionality or validity of treaty, law, presidential decree, proclamation, order, instruction, ordinance or regulation;
   -Legality of any tax, impost, assessment, or toll, or any penalty;
   -Jurisdiction of lower courts in issue;
   -Criminal cases penalty imposed is reclusion perpetua or higher;
   -Only error or question of law involved

Question 35

What cases must be heard en banc by the SC

Answer 35

SC En Banc:
1. Cases involving the constitutionality of a treaty, international or executive agreement, or law
2. Cases involving the constitutionality, application, or operation of presidential decrees, proclamations, orders, instructions, ordinances, and other regulations
3. Cases heard by a division when the required majority is not obtained;
4. Cases where a doctrine or principle of law previously laid down will be modified or reversed;
5. Cases which under the Rules of Court are required to be heard en banc
6. Administrative cases against judges when the penalty is dismissal
7. Election contests for President or Vice-President

Question 36

Scope of SC’s rule-making power

Answer 36

Rule-making (Art. VIII Sec. 5(5))
1. Protection and enforcement of constitutional rights
2. Pleading, practice, and procedure in all courts
3. Admission to the practice of law
4. The Integrated Bar
5. Legal assistance to the underprivileged

Requirements for the rules:
1. Provide for simplified and inexpensive procedure for speedy disposition of cases
2. Uniform for all courts of same grade
3. Not diminish, increase or modify substantive rights.

Question 37

Estipona v. Lobrigo

Answer 37

Plea bargaining is a rule of procedure. Special law which prohibits plea bargaining in drug cases is unconstitutional.

Question 38

Administrative powers and functions of the Supreme Court

Answer 38

Administrative functions and powers of the Supreme Court
1. Appoint all officials and employees in the Judiciary in accordance with the Civil Service Law
2. Shall have administrative supervision over all courts and personnel thereof.

Question 39

Can the Ombudsman investigate a judge for an alleged administrative offense?

Answer 39

No. The Constitution has vested adminsitrative supervision over all courts and their personnel. Hence, Ombudsman may not investigate judge or personell of the judiciary.