Legal Education Board

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Jump to navigation Jump to search
Legal Education Board

The Seal of the Legal Education Board (LEB)

Agency overview
Formed 23 December 1993 (25 years ago)
Philippine Red Cross Building,
Headquarters Carlos P. Garcia Ave., Diliman,
Quezon City, Philippines
Lex. Excellentia. Virtus. (English:
Motto
Law. Excellence. Virtue.)
 Emerson B. Aquende,
Agency
Chairman
executive

The Legal Education Board, or known widely by its abbreviation LEB, is an independent
government agency responsible for the regulation of the legal education in the Philippines. The
agency was created on December 23, 1993 through the enactment of Republic Act No. 7662 or
the Legal Education Act of 1993.[1] Currently, the Board is chaired by Emerson B. Aquende.[2]

Contents
 1 History
o 1.1 Developments
 2 Composition
  3 PhiLSAT
 4 See also
 5 References
 6 External link

History
Prior to the creation of the Board, the legal education in the Philippines was largely left
unsupervised. However, on December 23, 1993, Republic Act No. 7662, or the Legal Education
Reform Act of 1993 through the authorship of Senator Edgardo Angara, was created into law.
Despite of the creation of the Board, it only became operational after 16 years.[2] In 2009,
through the efforts of Senator Angara, the Board was given its first operational budget of 10
million pesos.[3] In the same year, former Court of Appeals Hilarion Aquino was appointed as its
first Chairman.[2] His term was supposedly to end on 2014, but had to occupy his post for two
years in a holdover capacity. In 2016, Aquino was replaced by Emerson Aquende, former Law
Dean of University of Santo Tomas–Legazpi (formerly known as Aquinas University of
Legazpi).[4]

On December 29, 2016, the Legal Education Board issued a memorandum order mandating all
aspiring law school students to take the Philippine Law School Admission Test (PhilSAT). The
first examination took place in April 2017 across seven key cities in the Philippines.[5][6]

Developments

The following were the major changes to the legal education made by the Board since 2009:

 Migration of the basic law degree from Bachelor of Laws to thesis and non-thesis Juris
Doctor degrees.[7]
 For purposes of classification, ranking and promotion in non-law degrees or courses,
Juris Doctor and Bachelor of Laws degrees were classified as equivalent to professional
graduate degrees, regardless if the holder has bar eligibility.[7] Previously, a law degree
with bar eligibility was only treated as equivalent to a master's degree.[8]

Composition
The Board is composed of a Chairman, who must preferably a former justice of the Supreme
Court or of the Court of Appeals, and four other regular members, each representing the
Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Philippine Association of Law Schools, the ranks of active law
practitioners and the law students' sector. A representative from the Commission of Higher
Education shall also serve as an ex officio member of the Board.[1] With the exception of the
representative of the law students' sector, the Chairman and regular members of the Board must
be natural-born citizen of the Philippines and members of the Philippine Bar, who have been
engaged for at least ten years in the practice of law, as well as in the teaching of law in a duly
authorized or recognized law school.[1]
PhiLSAT
Philippine Law School Admission Test
Acronym PhiLSAT
Type Standardized test
Developer /
Legal Education Board
administrator
Communications and language
Knowledge / proficiency, critical thinking, verbal
skills tested reasoning, and quantitative
reasoning
Year started 2017
Countries /
Philippines
regions
Languages English
Fee P1,000
Website www.philsat.com.ph

The Philippine Law School Admission Test, or more popularly known by its acronym PhiLSAT,
is a one day standardized aptitude test that was designed to evaluate the academic capability of a
person to pursue the potential in the study of law in the Philippines. The standardized test was
created pursuant to LEB Memorandum Order No. 7, series of 2016.[9][10] The tests covers four
subtests, namely: communications and language proficiency, critical thinking, verbal reasoning,
and quantitative reasoning.[11][12] The test was first implemented in 1970; it was later
reintroduced in 2017 and is given twice a year, on April and on September.[13][14]

In 2017, two petitions were filed before the Supreme Court: a petition challenging the
constitutionality of the Legal Education Board, and the second was a petition challenging the
powers of the Board to administer a standardized national test and creating such test as a
requirement for law school admission.[15][16] Oral arguments were held on March 5 and 12,
2019.[17] On March 18, 2019, the Supreme Court issued a temporary restraining order for the
implementation of PhiLSAT. The order further conditionally allowed those who have not taken
PhiLSAT for the academic year of 2018-2019, those did not pass the tests in the previous years,
those honor graduates with no exemption certificates or with expired exemption certificates to
enroll as incoming law students for the upcoming academic year. The said order was effective
immediately and shall continue until further orders from the said high court.[18]

See also
 Legal education in the Philippines
 Philippine Bar Examination
 Integrated Bar of the Philippines
 Continuing legal education in the Philippines
References
1.

 "R.A. 7662". The LAWPHiL Project. Retrieved January 14, 2019. This article incorporates
text from this source, which is in the public domain.
  Brion, Art (October 24, 2018). "Calling on Congress: Let us amend the LEB Charter now!".
Manila Bulletin. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  de Santos, Jonathan (December 12, 2010). "Angara pushes revamp of law education".
SunStar BACOLOD. Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  Aquino, Fr. Ranhilio (February 1, 2016). "Another job accomplished". Manila Standard.
Retrieved January 14, 2019.
  "PhilSAT: Entrance exam for aspiring law students starts this year". ABS-CBN News.
February 3, 2017. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  Buan, Lian (May 5, 2017). "81.43% pass first national law school entrance test PhilSAT".
Rappler. Retrieved January 17, 2019.
  Aquino, Fr. Ranhilio (January 15, 2019). "Doctor, doctor…". Manila Times. Retrieved
January 19, 2019.
  "Bachelor of Laws degree now considered Master's degree". Chan Robles Virtual Library.
Retrieved January 19, 2019.
  "Background on PhilSAT". PhiLSAT. Archived from the original on March 18, 2019.
Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  Torres-Tupas, Tetch. "Legal board told to answer plea vs law school admission test".
Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  "Brief Description of the Test". PhiLSAT. Archived from the original on March 18, 2019.
Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  Lim, Francis (May 11, 2017). "Manila has fallen!". Philippine Daily Inquirer. Retrieved
March 18, 2019.
  Navallo, Mike (March 6, 2019). "SC weighs validity of nationalized law school qualifying
exam PhiLSAT". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  "Registration for aspiring law students' PhiLSAT starts Mar. 2". ABS-CBN News. March 1,
2017. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  Benjamin, Pulta (February 4, 2019). "SC sets oral arguments on Legal Education Board
issue". Philippine News Agency. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  Philippine News Agency. "SC sets rules on oral arguments over LEB validity". Manila
Bulletin. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
  "SC to hold oral arguments on law entrance exam next month". GMA News. February 4,
2019. Retrieved March 18, 2019.
 Navallo, Mike (March 18, 2019). "SC allows non-PhiLSAT passers to enroll in law schools for
now, subject to next exam". ABS-CBN News. Retrieved March 18, 2019.