Tolentino-sponsored Sharia courts meaure okayed on 2nd reading
IN the midst of the observance of Ramadan, the Senate on Tuesday approved in the second reading the creation of Tolentino-sponsored Shari’a courts comprising three additional Shari’a District Courts and 12 Shari’a Circuit Courts.
Tolentino sponsored and defended the creation of additional Shari’a courts under Senate Bill 2594, Committee Report No. 2015.
He said these courts would serve the growing Muslim population outside the Bangsamoro Autonomous Region of Muslim Mindanao (BARMM). SB 2594 amended Articles 138, 147, and 150 of Presidential Decree No. 1083, known as the Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines.
Tolentino explained that additional Shari’a courts are needed because of the lapse of time since President Ferdinand Marcos Sr. signed PD 1083 on Feb. 4, 1977, the evolution and creation of the Bangsamoro law, and the expanding Muslim population. Five Shari’a District Courts and 36 Shari’a Circuit Courts are currently located in the BARMM.
The lawmaker cited the migration and immigration of Filipino Muslims previously concentrated in the areas of the Bangsamoro — the Cotabato area and the Zamboanga Peninsula—to Christian-populated areas such as Metro Manila, the Ilocos Region, the Visayas, and the Bicol Region as another reason to add Shari’a courts.
“The creation of additional courts would respond to the present needs of the time as well as the nudge coming from the Supreme Court in a decision promulgated on July 2023, in which the Supreme Court itself emphasized the need to strengthen Shari’a or Islamic Law by providing more access to the Shari’a Justice System in almost most parts of the Philippines,” he added.
Tolentino expounded on the Shari’a courts, which, as provided by PD 1083, are only allowed to receive complaints and hear cases under the personal laws of the Muslim faith.
