The Constitution (§ 5) gives the Supreme Court the power to be authorized to engage in lawful activity. 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. The solution to the above problems is the use of the latest technologies. Government agencies, including state-owned and controlled companies, have their own websites where they upload their rules and regulations to be accessible even worldwide.
Online sources have been developed by the government and the private sector to provide access to growing Philippine legal information. Some of the secondary sources of legislation are vital legal documents, published by Central Book Supply, containing a compilation of Presidential Decrees (1973). The second edition contains the laws of the Republic. Prof. Sulpicio Guevara has published three books containing the full text of laws or laws, namely: a). Public Laws Annotated (7 vols.), compilation of all statutes from 1901 to 1935, b). Laws of the Commonwealth commented (3vos.). Collection of Laws 1935-1945 (c). The laws of the First Republic of the Philippines (the laws of Malolos) 1898-1899. For Supreme Court decisions, Supreme Court Reports Annotated (SCRA), a secondary source published by Central Book Supply, is more current and popular in the legal community than the Philippine Reports, the primary and official source.
Quotations in commentaries or books, treatises, writings, journal articles, memoirs and even court decisions show acceptance of SCRA. The general rule is that in the absence of a primary source, the secondary source can be cited. This was the main reason for the popularity of the SCRA. There has been no primary source for a complete compilation of Supreme Court decisions for over twenty (20) years. The publication of Philippine reports by the National Printing Office was discontinued in the 1960s. It was not until 1982 that the publication of the Philippine reports was revived by the then Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Enrique M. Fernando, who took over the publication with special funds in the annual budget of the judiciary. Some law schools also offer legal information on their websites: • review, revision, annulment, modification or confirmation on appeal or certiorari, since the law or judicial regulations may provide for final judgments and orders of the lower courts in: o All cases in which the constitutionality or validity of a treaty, international or executive agreement, of a law, a proclaimed presidential decree, a decree, an ordinance, the instruction, regulation or regulation is questioned. o All cases involving the legality of taxes, duties or tolls or any related penalties. o All cases in which the jurisdiction of a lower court is at issue.
o All criminal cases in which the penalty is life imprisonment or more. o All cases in which it is only an error or a question of law. Congress websites: Each house has its own website. This is important in legal research, especially when it comes to determining the intent of the legislation and the procedures of the various committees in each chamber. Article 144 of Presidential Decree No. 1083 provides that the SDC has jurisdiction over all cases brought before the Shari`a District Courts (SPC) within its jurisdiction. It is also competent for cases involving criminal offences, as provided below: Batas Pambansa Blg.
