Bill on Shari’ah courts signed into law

PRESIDENT Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has signed into law a bill that will create three more Shari’ah judicial districts and 12 circuit courts across the country, ahead of the Bangsamoro region’s first parliamentary elections.

Republic Act.  No. 120181 amended a 1970s presidential decree that created five Shari’ah judicial districts for the provinces of Sulu, Tawi-Tawi, Zamboanga del Norte and Zamboanga del Sur, as well as in the cities of Pagadian, Zamboanga and Dipolog.

The first five Shari’ah judicial districts also included the provinces of Lanao del Norte, Lanao del Sur, Maguindanao, North Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat and the cities of Iligan, Marawi and Cotabato.

Shari’ah is a religious law that lays down the governing principles that must be followed by Muslims.

The new law created three additional Shari’ah districts including the sixth district for Bukidnon, Misamis Oriental, Misamis Occidental, Camiguin, Cagayan de Oro City and provinces in the Davao and Caraga regions.

The seventh district, meanwhile, covers provinces in Western, Central and Easter Visayas. The eighth district covers Metro Manila, provinces in the Cordillera Administrative Region, Ilocos Region, Cagayan Valley, Central Luzon, Calabarzon, Bicol and Mimaropa.

The law also increased Shari’ah circuit courts by 12 to 63. These will serve the newly created judicial districts.

The five circuit courts will be in the sixth district, three in the seventh district and four in the eighth Shari’ah district.  

In 2023, the Supreme Court ruled that Shari’ah courts are autonomous bodies that are independent from regular civil courts. — Kyle Aristophere T. Atienza