page_title: Sandiganbayan
section_title: The 1987 Constitution
hierarchical_section_title: Sandiganbayan / History / Post-Martial Law / The 1987 Constitution
caption_attribution_description: English: Corazon Aquino swears in as President of the Philippines at Club Filipino, San Juan on February 25, 1986
context_page_description: The Sandiganbayan is a special appellate collegial court in the Philippines that has jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases involving graft and corrupt practices and other offenses committed by public officers and employees, including those in government-owned or government-controlled corporations. The special court was established by Presidential Decree No. 1486 of the 1973 Constitution. It was subsequently modified by Presidential Decree No. 1606 and by Republic Acts numbered 7975 and 8249 in the 1987 Constitution. It is equal in rank to the Court of Appeals, and consists of fourteen Associate Justices and one Presiding Justice. The Office of the Ombudsman owns exclusive authority to bring cases to the Sandiganbayan.
  The Sandiganbayan is housed in the Centennial Building, Commonwealth Avenue, National Government Center, Diliman, Quezon City, Metro Manila.
context_section_description: On February 2, 1987, a new constitution was ratified under President Corazon Aquino. The 1987 Constitution established the separation of powers and a system of checks and balances between the executive, legislature, and judiciary branches.
  The 1987 Constitution expanded the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan to include cases investigated by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) involving ill-gotten wealth, instated by Executive Orders No. 14 and No. 14-A (main SB site & EO 14). In April 1994, Imelda Marcos and three former officials of the Ministry of Human Settlements (MHS) were indicted for the misappropriation of Php 97.9 million in MHS funds in 1985. At the same time, however, the Sandiganbayan dismissed charges against Imelda Marcos in connection with the sale of $125.9 million in Central Bank Treasury notes in the 1980s.
  Under the 1987 Philippine Constitution and the Ombudsman Act of 1989, the Office of the Ombudsman independently monitors all three branches of the government for political corruption.
caption: Corazon Aquino inauguration
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