<P> The judiciary is composed of the Supreme Court and other lower courts . The Supreme Court is the court of last resort, and decides on constitutionality of laws via judicial review . The president selects justices and judges from nominees given by the Judicial and Bar Council . The Court of Appeals is the second highest appellate court, the Court of Tax Appeals rules on tax matters, and the Sandiganbayan (People's Advocate) is a special court for alleged government irregularities . The Regional Trial Courts (RTC) are the main trial courts . The Regional Trial Courts are based on judicial regions, which almost correspond to the administrative regions . Each RTC has at least one branch in each province and handles most of the criminal and civil cases; several branches of an RTC may be designated as family courts and environmental courts . Metropolitan Trial Courts try lesser offenses . </P> <P> The Ombudsman investigates and prosecutes government officials on crimes while in dispensing powers given by the government . The Office of the Solicitor General represents the government in legal cases . </P> <P> Elections are administered by the Commission on Elections (COMELEC). The elected officials are the president, vice president, members of Congress, regional governors and assemblymen, provincial governors, vice governors and board members, city and municipal mayors, vice mayors and councilors, and barangay (village) chairmen and councilors . Elections are for fixed terms . All elected officials have three - year terms, except for the president, vice president and senators, which are six years . All terms begin and end on June 30 of the election year . </P> <P> Elections above the barangay level are held every three years since 1992 on the second Monday of May, all positions are disputed except for president and vice president; presidential and vice presidential elections are held every six years since 1992 . Single - winner elections are done via the plurality voting system: the candidate with the highest number of votes is elected . Multiple - winner elections, except for representatives elected the party - list system, are done via plurality - at - large voting . Each voter has x votes, with the x candidates with the highest number of votes being elected . For representatives elected the party - list system, a party that won at least 2% of the national vote wins one seat, with additional seats, but not exceeding three seats, depends on the number of votes it received . If the number of sectoral representatives does not reach 20% of the membership of the House of Representatives, parties with less than 2% of the vote are given a seat each until the 20% membership is filled . </P>

Government and politics in education in the philippines