Article 12p. 12

LEGAL AND JUDICIAL ETHICS CODES, CANONS AND RULES

SECTION

7.

Judges

shall

not

engage

in

conduct

incompatible

with

the

diligent

discharge

of judicial

duties.

Definitions

In this Code, unless the context otherwise permits or

requires, the following meanings shall be attributed to

the words used:

" Court staff " includes the personal staff of the judge

including law clerks.

" Judge " means any person exercising judicial power,

however designated.

" Judge's family " includes a judge's spouse, son, daughter,

son-in-law, daughter-in-law, and any other relative by

consanguinity or affinity within the sixth civil degree, or

person who is a companion or employee of the judge and

who lives in the judge's household.

This Code, which shall hereafter be referred to as the New

Code of Judicial Conduct for the Philippine Judiciary ,

supersedes the Canons of Judicial Ethics and the Code of

Judicial Conduct heretofore applied in the Philippines to

the extent that the provisions or concepts therein are

embodied in this Code: Provided, however , that in case of

deficiency or absence of specific provisions in this New

Code, the Canons of Judicial Ethics and the Code of

Judicial Conduct shall be applicable in a suppletory

character.

This New Code of Judicial Conduct for the Philippine

Judiciary shall take effect on the first day of June 2004,

following its publication not later than 15 May 2004 in two

newspapers of large circulation in the Philippines to

ensure its widest publicity.

Promulgated this 27 day of April 2004.

(New Code of Judicial Conduct for the Philippine

Judiciary, A.M. No. 03-05-01-SC, [April 27, 2004])

Rules of Court

RULE 135 Powers and Duties of Courts and

Judicial Officers

Section 1. Courts always open; justice to be promptly and

impartially administered . — Courts of justice shall always

be open, except on legal holidays, for the filing of any

pleading, motion or other papers, for the trial of cases,

hearing of motions, and for the issuance of orders or

rendition

of

judgments.

Justice

shall

be

impartially

administered without unnecessary delay.

Sec 2. Publicity of proceedings and records . — The sitting

of every court of justice shall be public, but any court may,

in its discretion, exclude the public when the evidence to

be adduced is of such nature as to require their exclusion

in the interest of morality or decency. The records of every

court of justice shall be public records and shall be

available for the inspection of any interested person, at all

proper business hours, under the supervision of the clerk

having custody of such records, unless the court shall, in

any special case, have forbidden their publicity, in the

interest of morality or decency.

Section

3.

Process

of

superior

courts

enforced

throughout the Philippines . — Process issued from a

superior court in which a case is pending to bring in a

defendant, or for the arrest of any accused person, or to

execute any order or judgment of the court, may be

enforced in any part of the Philippines.

Section 4. Process of inferior courts . — The process of

inferior courts shall be enforceable within the province

where the municipality or city lies. It shall not be served

outside the boundaries of the province in which they are

compromised except with the approval of the judge of

first instance of said province, and only in the following

cases:

(a) When an order for the delivery of personal property

lying outside the province is to be complied with;

(b) When an attachment of real or personal property lying

outside the province is to be made;

(c) When the action is against two or more defendants

residing in different provinces; and

(d) When the place where the case has been brought is

that specified in a contract in writing between the

parties, or is the place of the execution of such contract as

appears therefrom.

Writs of execution issued by inferior courts may be

enforced in any part of the part of the Philippines without

any previous approval of the judge of first instance.

Criminal process may be issued by a justice of the peace

or other inferior court, to be served outside his province,

when the district judge, or in his absence the provincial

fiscal, shall certify that in his opinion the interest of justice

require such service.

Section 5. Inherent powers of court . — Every court shall

have power:

(a)

To preserve and enforce order in its immediate

presence;

(b) To enforce order in proceedings before it, or before a

person or persons empowered to conduct a judicial

investigation under its authority;

(c) To compel obedience to its judgments, orders and

processes, and to the lawful orders of a judge out of court,

in a case pending therein;

(d) To control, in furtherance of justice, the conduct of its

ministerial

officers,

and

of all other persons in any

manner connected with a case before it, in every manner

appertaining thereto;

(e) To compel the attendance of persons to testify in a

case pending therein;

(f) To administer or cause to be administered oaths in a

case pending therein, and in all other cases where it may

be necessary in the exercise of its powers;

(g) To amend and control its process and orders so as to

make them conformable to law and justice;

(h) To authorize a copy of a lost or destroyed pleading or

other paper to be filed and used instead of the original,

and to restore, and supply deficiencies in its records and

proceedings.

Section 6. Means to carry jurisdiction into effect . — When

by law jurisdiction is conferred on a court or judicial

officer, all auxiliary writs, processes and other means

necessary to carry it into effect may be employed by such

court or officer; and if the procedure to be followed in the

exercise of such jurisdiction is not specifically pointed out

by law or by these rules, any suitable process or mode of

proceeding may be adopted which appears comfortable

to the spirit of the said law or rules.

Section 7. Trials and hearings; orders in chambers . — All

trials upon the merits shall be conducted in open court

and so far as convenient in a regular courtroom. All other

acts or proceeding may be done or conducted by a judge

in chambers, without the attendance of the clerk or other

court officials.

Section 8. Interlocutory orders out of province . — A judge

of first instance shall have power to hear and determine,

when within the district though without his province, any

interlocutory motion or issue after due and reasonable

notice to the parties. On the filing of a petition for the writ

of habeas corpus or for release upon bail or reduction of

bail in any Court of First Instance, the hearings may be

had at any place in the judicial district which the judge

shall deem convenient.

Section

9.

Signing

judgments

out

of

province .

—

Whenever a judge appointed or assigned in any province

or branch of a Court of First Instance in a province shall

leave the province by transfer or assignment to another

court

of

equal

jurisdiction,

or

by

expiration

of

his

© Compiled By RGL

12 of 41