An informal local system of mediation or mediation of certain issues operates outside the formal judicial system. There is no jury system. The accused enjoy the presumption of innocence and have the right to confront witnesses, present evidence and appeal. 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*] The Constitution requires the independence of the judiciary and defendants in criminal cases have the right to legal assistance. The legal system is based on both civil and common law. He is particularly influenced by Spanish and Anglo-American laws. The Philippines accepts the compulsory jurisdiction of the International Court of Justice. The Philippine judicial system follows the following hierarchy. Civil and criminal proceedings are brought before the courts of first instance.

Each court of first instance is presided over by a judge. The decisions of the courts of first instance may, in turn, be reviewed by the Court of Appeal, which consists of 23 chambers spread geographically throughout the country. There are three judges in each division. At the top of the judicial hierarchy is the Supreme Court, which consists of 15 judges. Cases brought before the Supreme Court are heard either in plenary or in division. Currently, the Supreme Court has three divisions. “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.” ~ The Constitution (§5) gives the Supreme Court the power to be authorized 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. He cited the case of Chinese drug trafficker Lim Seng, who was executed by firing squad in the early 1970s.

This has effectively eliminated illegal drug trafficking in the country for at least 10 years, the senator said. Sotto noted that the Constitution allows Congress to reinstate the death penalty as long as there are compelling reasons to support it. He called for the use of lethal injections as a means of enforcing the death penalty. “Puno, a man so reserved that he barely moves in a long interview, acted to push 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. ~ According to the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism: The imposition of the death penalty in the country has a repressive history. For the most part (from 1848 to 1987), it was used to restrict the freedoms, freedoms and rights of the Filipino people. In recent history, however, the death penalty has been reintroduced as a knee-jerk reaction to what was widely seen as an increase in crime in the country.

This anti-rape law reclassifies rape from a “crime against chastity” to a “crime against a person.” If the victim is a minor and refuses to accuse the offender, only the minor`s legal guardian or the court may lodge a complaint. This new law also punishes marital rape, but opens the door to forgiveness of the spouse to her husband, in which case the charge is quashed. The new law also redefines the type of rape and expands the traditional definition of forced insertion of the penis into the vagina to include the unwanted insertion of the penis or an object or instrument into another person`s body orifice. These “other acts” are now part of “sexual assault.” The revised penal code law also eliminates gender bias, so a woman can now be charged with raping a man. Finally, the law allows for the presentation to the court of evidence in which the presumption is created in favour of a rape victim, so that any overt physical act that shows resistance to any degree can now be accepted as evidence of rape. Similarly, evidence that the victim was in a situation where she was unable to give valid consent can now be accepted as evidence of rape. |~| “The nationally televised five-month trial gripped the nation like a soap opera, with moving testimony, political drama and family drama on the margins. Prosecutors, most of whom are allies of Aquinos in the House of Commons, argued that Corona concealed his wealth and offered “lame excuses” to evade public accountability. Corona said he amassed his fortune through foreign currency while still a student.

Reputation. Rodolfo Farinas, one of the prosecutors, mocked the 63-year-old judge, saying he “wants us to believe that when he was in fourth grade in 1959, he was such a visionary that he had already started buying dollars.” “It is clear that these are apologies and lies made before the Senate and the entire world,” Farinas said in Monday`s closing arguments, adding that Corona had declared less than 2% of what he actually owned in his statement on assets, liabilities and net worth. The Philippines is plagued by violent crime, with weapons readily available and even used in minor conflicts. Supporters of the death penalty fear that the repeal could lead to an increase in crime. The suspension comes days before Arroyo travels to the Vatican for an audience with Pope Benedict XVI. Some analysts see the abolition of the death penalty as an attempt to win bishops` support for the president`s plan to move to a parliamentary system of government. Others say Arroyo is trying to dispel church opposition to government efforts to restart mining. In 2007, Emily Green wrote in the Washington Post: “The Philippines, marked by political assassinations and corruption, is seeking the salvation of its new chief justice.

And in the first nine months of his mandate, Reynato Puno quickly established a more independent judiciary tasked with enforcing a new code of legal accountability.