SC: Parties in Sharia courts must be Muslim

11:40 am | Sunday, June 1st, 2014

MANILA, PhilippinesThe countrys Sharia district courts have no jurisdiction over real property suits
where one of the parties is not a Muslim, the Supreme Court has ruled.

The Supreme Court building in Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
The high courts Third Division, in a ruling dated April 23, voided the judgment rendered by the 5th Sharia
District Court in Cotabato City in a civil case concerning ownership of a parcel of land in Parang,
Maguindanao, because the respondent was a non-Muslim.
Consequently, the proceedings in the district court were also nullified, although the complainant may file a
new case in a regular municipal trial court, the Supreme Court said in the 20-page decision written by
Justice Marvic Leonen.
The other division membersJustices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Diosdado Peralta, Jose Mendoza and
Roberto Abad concurred in the decision.
The case stemmed from a suit filed by Roldan Mala to eject an allegedly illegal occupant, Vivencio
Villagracia from a 300-square meter property in Parang town.
Mala said he bought the property in 1996 but Villaragracia claimed he had an original title issued in 2002
by the Land Registration Authority covering the same lot.
After barangay conciliation failed, Roldan filed a case in the Sharia district court to evict Villagracia.
When Villagracia failed to answer the summons issued by the Sharia court, it rendered a decision in June
2008 ordering him to vacate the property and pay Mala P15,000 in damages and attorneys fees. The writ
of execution was issued in December the same year.
The following January, however, Villagracia filed a petition for relief from judgment, claiming the Sharia
court made a mistake since it did not have jurisdiction over him because he was a Christian and under
Presidential Decree No. 1058, or the 1977 Code of Muslim Personal Laws of the Philippines, Sharia
courts may only hear civil actions and proceedings if both parties were Muslims.
The Sharia court, however, junked his petition in June for lack of merit, saying that Villagracia no longer
had a right to question the ruling since he had failed to reply to the summons.
The Sharia court said it had applied the Civil Code, not Islamic law, in resolving the dispute and insisted
on its jurisdiction over both Villagracia and the suit.
In August, Villagracia filed a case for certiorari in the Supreme Court, which, after obtaining the comments
from the Sharia court and Mala, ruled in favor of Villagracia.
The justices affirmed that under PD 1058, Sharia courts and regular courts have concurrent jurisdiction
over personal and real property suits. However, it said that while the 5th Sharia District Court was correct
in applying the Civil Code and not Islamic law in resolving Villagracias case, it could not exercise its
concurrent jurisdiction validly since Mala was not a Muslim.
When it became apparent that Villagracia was not a Muslim, respondent Sharia district court should
have motu proprio dismissed the case. Jurisdiction is conferred by law, and lack of it affects the very
authority of the court to take cognizance of and to render judgment on the action, they added, citing a
decision issued by the Supreme Court in 2005.
The justices noted that Villagracia filed his petition directly with the Supreme Court instead of the Sharia
Appellate Court, which has yet to be established even if it is mandated under Republic Act No. 9054, or
the 2001 amended organic act for the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao.
In 2010, the Supreme Court ruled that until the Sharia Appellate Court was organized, a special division
of the Court of Appeals, preferably composed of Muslim justices, shall hear appeals of the decisions of
the Sharia district courts.
[W]e call for the organization of the court system created under RA 9054 to effectively enforce the
Muslim legal system in our country. After all, the Muslim legal systema legal system complete with its
own civil, criminal, commercial, political, international and religious lawsis part of the law of the land,
and Sharia courts are part of the Philippine judicial system, the justices said.