Jose Calida defends uniform admission test in law schools

MANILA, Philippines — Solicitor General Jose Calida has defended the legality of Philippine Law School Admission Test (Philsat), the government’s uniform entrance exam for law schools.

In oral arguments on Tuesday, Calida asked the Supreme Court (SC) to dismiss for lack of merit the petitions filed by members of the academe and law students seeking to abolish the Legal Education Board (LEB) and the Philsat.

Calida also opposed the proposition of petitioners led by retired Makati Regional Trial Court Judge Oscar Pimentel seeking to transfer to the SC the authority to regulate law schools.

Calida rebutted their arguments that LEB’s imposition of a uniform entrance test on law schools violates academic freedom under Article 14, Section 5 of the 1987 Constitution.

The solicitor general argued that the board created under Republic Act 7662 has the power to regulate law schools.

“The Board is empowered to set the standards of accreditation for law schools. These standards pertain to enrolment, faculty, admission of students, curriculum, library and other facilities. There can therefore be no violation of the academic freedom of law schools because the standards are fair, reasonable, and have equitable admission and academic requirements,” he stressed.

Calida also denied the claim of the petitioners that the LEB regulations constitute undue delegation of legislative power and encroachment of powers of the SC.

He said RA 7662 “only delegated the authority or discretion as to its execution” and that the law “clearly spelled out the parameters of the power entrusted to the LRD and assigned to it only the manner of enforcing the power.” 

“The regulation of law schools is not one of the powers conferred on the Court by Article VIII, Section 5 of the Constitution. It is not therefore correct to state that Congress encroached on a judicial function when it created the LEB through the LEB law,” he further argued.

Calida explained that the government has the police power to regulate law schools.

He added that the Philsat, which the LEB is implementing through Memorandum Order No. 7, is a “valid exercise of the State’s power to regulate legal education by seeking a minimum standard for entrance to law schools.”