30/07/2019
The Constitution of the Republic of the Philippines | Official Gazette of the Republic of the Philippines
SECTION 22. The President shall submit to the Congress within thirty days from the opening of every
regular session, as the basis of the general appropriations bill, a budget of expenditures and sources
of nancing, including receipts from existing and proposed revenue measures.
SECTION 23. The President shall address the Congress at the opening of its regular session. He may
also appear before it at any other time.
ARTICLE VIII
Judicial Department
SECTION 1. The judicial power shall be vested in one Supreme Court and in such lower courts as may
be established by law.
Judicial power includes the duty of the courts of justice to settle actual controversies involving rights
which are legally demandable and enforceable, and to determine whether or not there has been a grave
abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction on the part of any branch or
instrumentality of the Government.
SECTION 2. The Congress shall have the power to de ne, prescribe, and apportion the jurisdiction of
various courts but may not deprive the Supreme Court of its jurisdiction over cases enumerated in
Section 5 hereof.
No law shall be passed reorganizing the Judiciary when it undermines the security of tenure of its
Members.
SECTION 3. The Judiciary shall enjoy scal autonomy. Appropriations for the Judiciary may not be
reduced by the legislature below the amount appropriated for the previous year and, after approval,
shall be automatically and regularly released.
SECTION 4. (1) The Supreme Court shall be composed of a Chief Justice and fourteen Associate
Justices. It may sit en banc or in its discretion, in divisions of three, ve, or seven Members. Any
vacancy shall be lled within ninety days from the occurrence thereof.
(2) All cases involving the constitutionality of a treaty, international or executive agreement, or law,
which shall be heard by the Supreme Court en banc, and all other cases which under the Rules of Court
are required to be heard en banc, including those involving the constitutionality, application, or
operation of presidential decrees, proclamations, orders, instructions, ordinances, and other
regulations, shall be decided with the concurrence of a majority of the Members who actually took part
in the deliberations on the issues in the case and voted thereon.
www.officialgazette.gov.ph/constitutions/1987-constitution/
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