page_title: Politics of the Philippines
section_title: Judiciary
hierarchical_section_title: Politics of the Philippines / Judiciary
caption_attribution_description: English: A branch of government in the Philippines
context_page_description: The politics of the Philippines take place in an organized framework of a presidential, representative, and democratic republic whereby the president is both the head of state and the head of government within a pluriform multi-party system. This system revolves around three separate and sovereign yet interdependent branches: the legislative branch, the executive branch, and the judicial branch. Executive power is exercised by the government under the leadership of the president. Legislative power is vested in both the government and the bicameral Congress: the Senate and the House of Representatives. Judicial power is vested in the courts with the Supreme Court of the Philippines as the highest judicial body.
  Elections are administered by an independent Commission on Elections every three years starting 1992. Held every second Monday of May, the winners in the elections take office on the following June 30.
  Local government is produced by local government units from the provinces, cities, municipalities, and barangays.
context_section_description: The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court and other lower courts. The Supreme Court is the court of last resort, and decides on the constitutionality of laws via judicial review. The President selects justices and judges from nominees given by the Judicial and Bar Council. The Court of Appeals is the second-highest appellate court, the Court of Tax Appeals rules on tax matters, and the Sandiganbayan (People's Advocate) is a special court for alleged government irregularities. The Regional Trial Courts (RTC) are the main trial courts. The Regional Trial Courts are based on judicial regions, which almost correspond to the administrative regions. Each RTC has at least one branch in each province and handles most of the criminal and civil cases; several branches of an RTC may be designated as family courts and environmental courts. Metropolitan Trial Courts try lesser offenses.
  The Ombudsman investigates and prosecutes government officials on crimes while in dispensing powers given by the government. The Office of the Solicitor General represents the government in legal cases.
caption: Supreme Court of the Philippines
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