SC asked to allow justices, judges to teach in UP Law

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has been asked to allow incumbent members of the judiciary to teach in the University of the Philippines College of Law.

In a two-page letter to Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno earlier this week, UP law dean Danilo Concepcion lamented that their faculty has been deprived of additional prominent and distinguished members due to the constitutional prohibition against double compensation in government.

He said such deprivation is “due to the apprehension that teaching in UP as a lecturer might be prohibited by the Constitution.”

Concepcion said some judges and justices are interested in teaching law at UP, but they are afraid of violating the proscription against double compensation and double position or employment in government under Article IX (b) Section 8 of the Constitution.

“As an inevitable consequence, judges and justices have shunned public law schools and taught, instead, in those that are privately run,” he said.

He said this exodus is a big loss of resources for their college and an advantage to the private law schools.

Concepcion believes that getting paid for teaching in UP as a lecturer cannot be considered as a case of double compensation.

“It is our opinion, too, that teaching in a public school is not a case of holding double positions or employment in government,” Concepcion pointed out.

“Our students at the UP College of Law need the services of many of the distinguished members of the bench. We implore you to help us in allowing them to teach in the college as professorial lectures,” he appealed to the Chief Justice, who herself used to teach in UP.

The dean said UP used to have distinguished members of the judiciary in the roster of its faculty.

In the 2011 Bar examinations, no graduate from the UP College of Law made it to the Top 10 – the first time this happened in a very long time.