The court under the constitution IN Good citizenship [column]

Title

Language

English

Source

The Young Citizen. I (6) July 1935

Year

1935

Subject

Philippines. Supreme Court

Philippine Constitution

Rights

In Copyright - Educational Use Permitted

Fulltext

July, 1935 l ..}',., !-" r ,,, , ',,., , fHE YOUNG CITIZEN J-,GOOD TIZ~MIHIP THE COURTS UNDER THE CONSTITUTION The Constitution of the Philip-· pines contains rules which make courts or judges independent. for irstance, a judge may not be discharged from his office as long .i.s hi( behavior is good. He has tho! right to continue in office until he reaches the age of 70 years or until he has becOme incapacitated. Thus lw may not be threatened with expulsion from office if he decides ;i. case against any government" official. even if such officia"l is the President of the Philippines himself: Another way by which the Constitution protects the independence oi a judge is by prohibiting the l0wering of his salary at any time while he is in office. No offi".:r may, therefore, cut the salary of a judge who refuses to give him favors. The protection given to judges by the constitution is made stror.ger still by the rule which says that hl" may not be transferred from one district to another without the ap proval of the Supreme Court. Til<.! governor of a province may dis:ike a judge for. deciding a case against him. He may wane the judge removed from his province to another. But if the Supreme Court docs not approve the transfer, the governor or any other official ha.-; no way of getting rid of a judge. The highest court of the Philippines under the constitution is th( Supreme Court. It is composed of eleven mcm hers. One of them is called the chief justice and the ot:1er ten arc associate justices. The Supreme .Court has two .important duties to perform. On1: is tn decide cases of great importance coming from the lower courts. An· other duty is to declare whether a law passed by the National Assembly or an order issued by the Presidmt of the Philippines is not con· trary to the rules found in the Constitution. If the Supreme Court finds that a law or an order oi the President is contrary to an; rule of th<! Constitution. it may Lie. cLre the !J.w or order invalid. An invalid law of the National Assembly or o'rde1 of the President has no force. It need not be obeyed by the people. It cannot give any person any right. No one may be punished for violating its provisions. The Constitution requires that before a law may .be de~lared in,·;:lid, at least two-thirds of all the members of the Supreme Court agree to its invalidity. If less than two-thirds of the justices are of the opinion that the law is invalid, the law will remain valid. In other \1.;ords there must be at least eight justices who should. vote that lh~ bw is invalid. The Supreme Court is given ar:.olher duty by the Constiturion. This duty is to make rules which shall be followed by any person aud their lawyers in the trial of cas.::s. These rules are called ruks of procedure and practice. They must b<! followed by a person who has a case to be presented in the courts. These rules declare how a person should take his case to a court. how a lawyer should appear in court, and how he should present the case of his client. The National Assembly, however. has the power to make changes in these rules of procedure made by the Supn'mc Court. Another duty or power given b} the constitution to the Supreme Court is the power to allow or permit persons to act as lawyers. A young man wants to be a IJwycr. He studied in a law school. 1-ic I 61 graduated with the degree of Bachelor of Laws. It does not mean chat when he has this Jaw degre..? he can act as a lawyer for any person. He must first pass an examination. This examination is given by the Supreme Court. The.se rules may also be changed by the National Assembly. The Constitution fixes the sala.ty ol the chief just.ice of the Supreme Ccurt at PI 6,000 a year. Each associate justice is given a salary cf r15.000 a year. The National Assi'mbly, however, may change this amount. But o_nce changed the salary may not be decreased any more during the term of office of the justices concerned. No person who is not a l.lwycr may be appointed to any judicial position. Thus even a justice of the peace. who occupies the lowest place in our judici3ry. has to be a lawyer. A. justice of the Supreme Cotirt must have been five years a citizen of the Philippines. He must be :it least forty years old and must ha,·c been for at least ten years a judge of a court of record or must have "" been engaged in the practice of law in the Philippines for at least the same length of time. POISONOUS AND (Continued .from page 155) 111 ocher lands, such as Cuba and J'vlauritius, where this fish is also found, they are not allowed to be sold in the market because they do h.um co human beings. According tn one physician in the island o( Mauritius, the "papakol" or "pugot" causes a bad effect on the stomach of the person who cats it. The muscles of his stomach contr;i.cts, and afterwards the same effect will be felt throughout his entire body. The person then feels a sickening pain. His breathing becomes hard and difficult; and the11, if he is not trea'tcd at once, he dies. In case this kind of poisoning happens to you, you should take some medicine that will make yoti vomit, so this doctor advises us. Even those kinds which are not exacxtly poisonous, we find that they do not taste well. They are a wholesome food.

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