Court of Appeals of the Philippines


The Court of Appeals is an appellate collegiate court in the Philippines. The Court of Appeals consists of one presiding justice and sixty-eight associate justices. Pursuant to the Constitution, the Court of Appeals "reviews not only the decisions and orders of the Regional Trial Courts awards, judgments, final orders or resolutions of, or authorized by administrative agencies exercising quasi-judicial functions mentioned in Rule 43 of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, plus the National Amnesty Commission and the Office of the Ombudsman". Under Republic Act No. 9282, which elevated the Court of Tax Appeals to the same level of the Court of Appeals, en banc decisions of the Court of Tax Appeals are subject to review by the Supreme Court instead of the Court of Appeals. Added to the formidable list are the decisions and resolutions of the National Labor Relations Commission which are now initially reviewable by the Court of Appeals, instead of a direct recourse to the Supreme Court, via petition for certiorari under Rule 65.
The Court of Appeals buildings is at Maria Orosa Street in Ermita, Manila, on the grounds of what used to be part of the University of the Philippines Manila campus.
WWW ca.judiciary.gov.ph

History

Organized on February 1, 1936, the Court of Appeals was initially composed of Justice Pedro Concepcion, as the first presiding judge, and ten appellate judges appointed by the president of the Philippines with the consent of the Commission on Appointments of the National Assembly. It had exclusive appellate jurisdiction of all cases not falling under the original and exclusive appellate jurisdiction of the seven-man Supreme Court. Its decisions in those cases were final, except when the Supreme Court upon petition for certiorari on questions of law required that the case be certified to it for review. It also had original jurisdiction to issue writs of mandamus, prohibition, injunction, certiorari, habeas corpus and all other auxiliary writs in aid of its appellate jurisdiction. The court then sat either en banc or in two divisions, one of six and another of five judges. The appellate judges had the same qualifications as those provided by the Constitution for Supreme Court justices.
In March 1938, the appellate judges were named justices and their number increased from eleven to fifteen, with three divisions of five under Commonwealth Act No. 259. On December 24, 1941, the membership of the court was further increased to nineteen justices under Executive Order No. 395.
The court functioned during the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1944. However, in March 1945, due to abnormal conditions at the time, the court was abolished by President Sergio Osmeña through Executive Order No. 37. The end of World War II restored the democratic processes in the country. On October 4, 1946, Republic Act No. 52 was passed, recreating the Court of Appeals, with a presiding justice and fourteen associate justices. The court was composed of five divisions of three justices each.
On August 23, 1956, the membership of the court was expanded to eighteen justices per Republic Act No. 1605. The number was hiked to twenty-four justices as decreed by Republic Act No. 5204 approved on June 15, 1968. Ten years later, the unabated swelling of the court's dockets called for a much bigger court of forty-five justices under Presidential Decree No. 1482 of June 10, 1978. Then came the judiciary reorganization on January 17, 1983, through Executive Order No. 864 of President Ferdinand Marcos. The court was renamed the Intermediate Appellate Court, and its membership was enlarged to fifty-one justices. However, only thirty-seven justices were appointed to this court.
On July 28, 1986, President Corazon Aquino issued Executive Order No. 33, which restored the original name of the appellate court to the Court of Appeals and its presiding justice and fifty associate justices.
On February 23, 1995, Republic Act No. 7902 was passed, which expanded the jurisdiction of the court effective March 18, 1995. On December 30, 1996, Republic Act No. 8246 created six more divisions in the court, thereby increasing its membership from fifty-one to sixty-nine justices. These additional divisions—three for the Visayas and three for Mindanao—paved the way for the appellate court's regionalization. In the Visayas, the court sits in Cebu City, while Cagayan de Oro is home to the court for Mindanao.
On August 18, 2007, the then-president of the Cebu City Chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Briccio Joseph Boholst, opposed the abolition of the court in Cebu City, as he claimed that it would cause inconvenience for both litigants and lawyers. Supreme Court Associate Justice Ruben Reyes was tasked to investigate and submit his recommendations to the High Tribunal regarding the alleged massive graft and corruption of justices, especially in the issuance of temporary restraining orders.
On February 1, 2018, the court celebrated its 82nd anniversary.

Incumbent justices

The Court of Appeals consists of a presiding justice and sixty-eight associate justices. Among the current members of the court, Fernanda Lampas-Peralta is the longest-serving associate justice, with a tenure of days as of ; the most recent justice to enter the court are Marietta S. Brawner-Cualing, Mary Josephine P. Lazaro, Ferdinand C. Baylon and Emilio Rodolfo Y. Legaspi III on August 29, 2024.
Number of incumbent justices by 1 after the Compulsory retirement of Associate Justice Jacinto Fajardo Jr. from the Bench on March 8, 2024.
PostName of Incumbent
Birthdate		Date of appointmentAppointed byDate of Retirement
Succeeding
Presiding Justice
November 18, 2024Punzalan-Castillo
Associate Justice
March 15, 2004Macapagal-ArroyoRegino
Associate Justice
August 1, 2005Macapagal-ArroyoBrawner, Sr.
Associate Justice
May 8, 2006Macapagal-ArroyoPine
Associate Justice
October 30, 2009Macapagal-ArroyoBersamin
Associate Justice
February 16, 2010Macapagal-Arroyodel Castillo
Associate Justice
February 16, 2010Macapagal-ArroyoVillarama Jr.
Associate Justice
February 24, 2010Macapagal-ArroyoDimaranan-Vidal
Associate Justice
March 1, 2011Aquino IIIArevalo Zenarosa
Associate Justice
March 15, 2011Aquino IIIRomilla-Lontok
Associate Justice
November 11, 2011Aquino IIIAliño-Hormachuelos
Associate Justice
February 3, 2012Aquino IIIB. Reyes
Associate Justice
February 16, 2012Aquino IIIPerlas-Bernabe
Associate Justice
March 13, 2014Aquino IIIAlberto-Gacutan
Associate Justice
March 13, 2014Aquino IIIAbarintos
Associate Justice
January 8, 2015Aquino IIITolentino
Associate Justice
May 5, 2015Aquino IIIVeloso III
Associate Justice
November 6, 2015Aquino IIIde Guia-Salvador
Associate Justice
November 6, 2015Aquino IIIDicdican
Associate JusticePerpetua Atal-Paño
November 6, 2015Aquino IIIAbdulwahid
Associate JusticeRuben Reynaldo Roxas
November 6. 2015Aquino IIIM. Elbinas
Associate JusticeLouis Acosta
March 2, 2017DuterteReyes-Carpio
Associate JusticeTita Marilyn Payoyo-Villordon
June 28, 2017DuterteF. Acosta
Associate JusticeWalter S. Ong
November 28, 2017DuterteTijam
Associate Justice
April 30, 2018DuterteReal-Dimagiba
Associate Justice
June 19, 2018DuterteSandang
Associate Justice
October 10, 2018DuterteS. Inting
Associate JusticeLily Biton
July 8, 2019DuterteJ. Reyes Jr.
Associate Justice
July 8, 2019DuterteM. de Leon
Associate Justice
July 8, 2019DuterteFrancisco
Associate Justice
March 2, 2020DuterteBorja
Associate Justice
March 2, 2020DuterteCarandang
Associate Justice
March 2, 2020DuterteLazaro-Javier
Associate Justice
March 2, 2020DuterteHernando
Associate Justice
April 13, 2020DuterteContreras
Associate Justice
April 13, 2020DuterteSalandnan-Manahan
Associate Justice
April 13, 2020DuterteH. Inting
Associate Justice
April 15, 2020DuterteVillon
Associate Justice
May 20, 2021DuterteM. Lopez
Associate Justice
May 20, 2021DuterteQuijano-Padila
Associate Justice
May 20, 2021DuterteGaerlan
Associate Justice
May 24, 2021DuterteLantion
Associate Justice
May 24, 2021DuterteDelos Santos
Associate Justice
March 7, 2022DuterteBaltazar-Padilla
Associate Justice
March 7, 2022DuterteRosario
Associate Justice
March 7, 2022DuterteLibrea-Leagogo
Associate Justice
March 7, 2022DuterteJ. Lopez
Associate Justice
March 7, 2022DuterteLloren
Associate Justice
March 7, 2022DuterteYbañez
Associate Justice
March 7, 2022DuterteDiamante
Associate Justice
March 8, 2022DuterteCruz
Associate Justice
March 8, 2022DuterteBueser
Associate Justice
March 8, 2022DuterteSalazar-Fernando
Associate Justice
May 19, 2022DuterteDimaampao
Associate Justice
May 19, 2022DuterteMontejo-Gonzaga
Associate Justice
October 11, 2022Marcos Jr.March 8, 2033Ingles
Associate Justice
October 11, 2022Marcos Jr.May 18, 2040Camello
Associate Justice
September 26, 2023Marcos Jr.October 23, 2046Singh
Associate Justice
September 26, 2023Marcos Jr.February 19, 2048Barrios
Associate Justice
September 26, 2023Marcos Jr.October 24, 2045Posadas-Kahulugan
Associate JusticeFerdinand C. Baylon
August 29, 2024Marcos Jr.September 11, 2040
Associate JusticeMarietta S. Brawner-Cualing
August 29, 2024Marcos Jr.May 28, 2043
Associate JusticeMary Josephine D. P. Lazaro
August 29, 2024Marcos Jr.April 24, 2038
Associate JusticeEmilio Rodolfo Y. Legaspi III
August 29, 2024Marcos Jr.April 10, 2038
Associate Justice
April 14, 2025Marcos Jr.July 23, 2031
Associate Justice
April 14, 2025Marcos Jr.December 13, 2045
Associate Justice
September 23, 2025Marcos Jr.Lampas-Peralta
Associate Justice
September 23, 2025Marcos Jr.Fajardo Jr.
Associate JusticeVacante

Divisions

On,Fernanda Lampas-Peralta, the Presiding Justice, Issued Office Order 689-25-FLP, which was in view of the recent appointments of Justice Robert Victor Consungji Marcon and Snooky Maria Ana Bareno-Sagayo on, Taking into consideration the order if seniority under Rule 1 of the 2009 Internal Rules of the Court of Appeals, the Statements of Preference and exigency of the service, the new Composition of the Divisions effective shall be as follows.