MANILA – The Consultative Committee (Concom) created by President Rodrigo Duterte to review the 1987 Constitution has proposed the creation of three high courts under its draft Federal Constitution.
The three high courts will be called the Federal Supreme Court, the Federal Constitutional Court and the Federal Administrative Court.
It was a consensus reached by the Subcommittee on the Structure of the Federal Government but will still be subject for voting by the en banc, Concom senior technical assistant and spokesman Ding Generoso said.
The proposal was patterned from other countries. It does not limit the judiciary to one supreme court but sets up specialized courts to address specific concerns or cases, said Generoso.
“Instead na lahat nakatambak sa Supreme Court, nahahati iyong certain cases depende kung ano’ng klaseng issue,” Generoso said. “Having three high courts will also help unclog the docket or case backlog at the Supreme Court.”
Each high court will have a distinct and separate jurisdiction.
Each “will be composed of nine justices, including a chief justice for the Supreme Court and a presiding justice for the Constitutional and Administrative courts,” Generoso said. “Their appointments will be divided among the three branches of government.”
Three of the justices for each court, including the chief justice and the presiding justices, shall be appointed by the president while three others shall be appointed by Congress’ Commission on Appointments.
“Giving Congress power to appoint three of the justices is a response to criticism that justices are not elected by the people,” Concom chairman and former chief justice Reynato Puno.
“Our thinking is that you cannot also completely take away the participation of Congress in the appointment of our justices,” he added./PN
