Qualifications of Justices of the Peace of Capitals of Subprovinces

November 14, 1931

ACT NO. 3887

AN ACT TO REQUIRE OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE OF CAPITALS OF SUBPROVINCES THE SAME QUALIFICATIONS AS OF JUSTICES OF THE PEACE OF CAPITALS OF REGULARLY ORGANIZED PROVINCES

SECTION 1. Section two hundred and seven of the Administrative Code, as amended by Act Numbered Thirty-one hundred and seven, is hereby further amended to read as follows:

"SEC. 207. Qualifications for office of justice of peace. — No person shall be eligible to appointment as justice of the peace or auxiliary justice unless he shall be (1) at least twenty-three years of age; (2) a citizen of the Philippine Islands or of the United States; (3) of good moral character; and (4) admitted by the Supreme Court to practice law, or be a person who has at least finished the courses of legal study in a recognized school, or shall have passed the civil service examination for clerk of court, or an examination to be held in each province before a board composed of the judge of the Court of First Instance, the provincial fiscal, and a practising lawyer appointed by the judge, under rules and regulations to be prescribed by the Attorney-General with the approval of the Secretary of Justice. TcEDHa

"The duration of eligibility derived from examination before a board, as aforesaid, shall be for a period of fourteen years only, from the date of examination, or if meanwhile the examinee has held the office of justice of the peace, auxiliary justice of the peace, notary public, or procurador judicial, for four years from the date on which he ceased to hold such office.

"The examination requirement shall not be enforced in case the appointee is an officer of the United States Army or of the Philippine Government, or when there is no person having the necessary qualifications who is willing to accept the office. In this last-mentioned case the appointment shall continue only until such time as a qualified person can be found who is willing to accept the office. DCIAST

"No person shall be appointed judge of the municipal court of the City of Manila unless he shall have practiced law in the Philippine Islands for a period of four years or shall during a like period have held in the Philippine Islands any office for which a lawyer's diploma is an indispensable requisite.

"In the future no person shall be appointed justice of the peace for the capital of any province or subprovince organized under the Provincial Law who has not practiced law in the Philippine Islands for at least one year or has not held for a like period some office in the Philippine Islands for which a lawyer's diploma is an indispensable requisite, and no person shall hereafter be appointed justice of the peace of any first-class municipality unless he has been admitted to the bar by the Supreme Court of the Philippine Islands.

"The present justices of the peace of subprovincial capitals shall be transferred to other municipalities if they do not possess the qualifications required by this Act."

SECTION 2. This Act shall take effect on its approval.

Approved, November 14, 1931.