Section 3Republic Act No. 296, otherwise known as the Judiciary Act of 1948, as amended, of Republic Act No. 9as amended, of the Rules of Court, and of all other statutes, letters of instructions and general o, Sec./Art. 3

Organization. There is hereby created an Intermediate Appellate Court which shall consist of a Presiding Appellate Justice and forty-nine Associate Appellate Justices who shall be appointed by the President of the Philippines. The Presiding Appellate Justice shall be so designated in his appointment, and the Associate Appellate Justices shall have precedence according to the dates of their respective appointments, or when the appointments of two or more of them shall bear the same date, according to the order in which their appointments were issued by the President.

Any member who is reappointed to the Court after rendering service in any other position in the government shall retain the precedence to which he was entitled under his original appointment, and his service in the Court shall, to all intents and purposes, be considered as continuous and uninterrupted.