Sandiganbayan

The Sandiganbayan, a Filipino name meaning support of the nation, is the Philippine anti-graft court: a special collegial court with jurisdiction over criminal and civil cases involving graft, corrupt practices and other offenses by public officers and employees at salary grade 27 and above, including those in government-owned and controlled corporations. It was created by Presidential Decree No. 1486 on June 11, 1978, under the administration of Ferdinand Marcos, and Presidential Decree No. 1606 later that year raised it to the rank of the Court of Appeals; it began operating in February 1979. Republic Acts 7975, 8249 and 10660 later reshaped its jurisdiction and structure. It has a Presiding Justice and fourteen Associate Justices who sit in seven divisions of three, and only the Office of the Ombudsman may bring cases before it. It sits in the Centennial Building in Diliman, Quezon City.