The Supreme Court

DURING my college days, I only knew the Court as a building with an imposing façade at the corner of P. Faura and Taft Avenue. Beyond this image, I related the Court to the pictures of the black-robed justices that occasionally appeared in the newspapers.

Even now perhaps, when the ordinary citizen is asked how he or she pictures the Supreme Court, the response may largely bring up the standard Court image on television – i.e., scenes of the members of the Court individually piling into or sitting at the Session Hall for oral arguments. What the Court exactly does and how it operates are mysterious abstractions known only to a few laymen. This lack of depth in understanding the Court has contributed to the romanticized “mystique” that surrounds the Court and its activities.

These days, the Court bares itself and apprises the public of judicial developments through a dedicated website and through feeds to the regular media. (Individually researched articles [and even a book] about the Court and its justices have appeared in the past, but no similar publication has been made in the last few years.) Oral arguments are streamed and may be viewed online. Thus, there are now more windows of opportunity to view the Court than during my college days.

Nevertheless, I believe that the information provided are not enough; a vigilant and watchful public needs more in terms of a fuller understanding of the Court and its inner workings to ensure that real justice is achieved in the resolution of disputes. The trappings of justice can very easily be feigned through publicized speeches dripping with honeyed idealism and through clever manipulation.

Physically, the Supreme Court has expanded from the facilities at the corner of Taft Avenue and Padre Faura Street (the old Supreme Court building) and now also occupies the building that the Department of Foreign Affairs used to occupy. This is the new Supreme Court building. The old Supreme Court building now houses the Office of the Court Administrator, while the Judicial and Bar Council occupies the newer building beside it. The Court’s Session Hall, the offices of the Supreme Court justices, the deliberation rooms, and the Court library are in the new Supreme Court building.

Compared to the façade of the old Supreme Court building, the façade of the new Supreme Court is more impressive and awe-inspiring. The courtyard in front of the building (which also serves as a parking lot) enhances these effects as it offers an unhindered view of the building from P. Faura Street.

A striking feature of the new Supreme Court building is easily the four columns – standing like sentries – that fortify and lend strength to the building’s façade. Entry to the building is through a seven-step marble stairs. At either side of the stairs are two imposing statutes – to the right is the statute of Chief Justice Cayetano Arellano (the first Chief Justice) and to the left is that of Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos (martyred during the Japanese occupation).

Beyond the columns are the Court’s three massive doors that lead to the lobby whose distinctive feature is the Court logo in the middle. To the left of the lobby is the Division hearing room which also serves as the Judicial and Bar Council interview room. To the right is the Dignitaries’ Lounge where the justices receive dignitaries and other important guests. Beside the Lounge, is the corridor that leads to the Supreme Court Library, a hardly noticed but important part of life in the Court.

Farther into the lobby, at each side, are two marble stairways. The left one leads to the Session Hall where Court holds oral arguments and other public functions. The stairway to the right leads to the Office of the Chief Justice and the banc room where the full Court of 15 justices deliberates on cases and administrative matters every Tuesday.

Linking the top of the two stairways is a long corridor whose walls are lined with the pictures of the Court’s past Chief Justices. At the en banc room end of this corridor is the dining room where the justices dine to lighten the serious (at times, heated) exchanges that take place during their deliberations.

Past the entry to the en banc room is a single flight of stairs leading to the division meeting rooms on the 3rd floor. The Court has divided itself into three divisions with five justices as members of a division. Divisions usually meet twice a week, usually under the schedule set by the Division Chairman, the most senior justice in the division.

Court committees also use the division rooms for their meetings, usually on Thursdays and Fridays, as Court deliberative meetings are generally from Mondays to Wednesdays.

The offices of the associate justices are distributed in the main Supreme Court building for the more senior justices and, for the other justices, in the Annex Building linked by corridors to the main building.

Justices’ rooms do not have uniform sizes, nor are they uniformly furnished. The larger rooms are usually reserved for the senior justices. Although there are rules on the funds available for room renovations, furnishings and renovations may depend on the fund releases that the Office of the Chief Justice decides upon, presumably taking into account the occupant member’s request.

The Court starts its week with a Monday morning flag ceremony held at the courtyard. As a rule, the justices line up in the order of seniority, but this is more of a practice or tradition rather than a fixed rule. The justices do not all attend the flag ceremony; the attendance by a simple quorum of the Court is the exception rather than the rule. When significant events are happening, keen Court watchers usually observe the attendance and derive meanings based on the absent and present personalities.

The flag ceremony is followed by a better-attended Court breakfast or brunch at the en banc dining room. Breakfast talks tend to dwell on nonessential judicial matters and future plans, but may also veer towards politics and the “inside stories” of current non-judicial developments.

Separately from its Manila headquarters, the Supreme Court maintains an office in Baguio City for its summer sessions that last anywhere from three to five weeks per year. Instead of a relaxed schedule, the more contentious cases are usually brought to the Baguio sessions for deliberation. En banc and division meetings are held at the Supreme Court Baguio office and some cases may even be heard on oral arguments.

The justices are housed in individual cottages at the adjoining Supreme Court compound; lawyers and staff members providing support during the sessions are usually provided their own rooms in the justices’ cottages. Meeting schedules observed in Manila, including the flag ceremony, are usually carried over into the Baguio session. Thus, except for the situs, regular Court business continues.

The next instalment of this series shall discuss the Court as established and constituted under the 1987 Constitution.