Organized on February 1, 1936, the Court of Appeals was initially composed of Justice Pedro Concepcion, as the first presiding judge, and ten appellate judges appointed by the
president of the Philippines with the consent of the
Commission on Appointments of the
National Assembly. It had exclusive appellate jurisdiction of all cases not falling under the original and exclusive appellate jurisdiction of the seven-man
Supreme Court. Its decisions in those cases were final, except when the Supreme Court upon petition for
certiorari on questions of law required that the case be certified to it for review. It also had original jurisdiction to issue writs of
mandamus,
prohibition,
injunction,
certiorari,
habeas corpus and all other auxiliary writs in aid of its appellate jurisdiction. The court then sat either
en banc or in two divisions, one of six and another of five judges. The appellate judges had the same qualifications as those provided by the
Constitution for Supreme Court justices. In March 1938, the appellate judges were named
justices and their number increased from eleven to fifteen, with three divisions of five under Commonwealth Act No. 259. On December 24, 1941, the membership of the court was further increased to nineteen justices under Executive Order No. 395. The court functioned during the Japanese occupation from 1941 to 1944. However, in March 1945, due to abnormal conditions at the time, the court was abolished by President
Sergio Osmeña through Executive Order No. 37. The end of
World War II restored the democratic processes in the country. On October 4, 1946, Republic Act No. 52 was passed, recreating the Court of Appeals, with a presiding justice and fourteen associate justices. The court was composed of five divisions of three justices each. On August 23, 1956, the membership of the court was expanded to eighteen justices per Republic Act No. 1605. The number was hiked to twenty-four justices as decreed by Republic Act No. 5204 approved on June 15, 1968. Ten years later, the unabated swelling of the court's dockets called for a much bigger court of forty-five justices under Presidential Decree No. 1482 of June 10, 1978. Then came the judiciary reorganization on January 17, 1983, through Executive Order No. 864 of President
Ferdinand Marcos. The court was renamed the Intermediate Appellate Court, and its membership was enlarged to fifty-one justices. However, only thirty-seven justices were appointed to this court. On July 28, 1986, President
Corazon Aquino issued Executive Order No. 33, which restored the original name of the appellate court to the Court of Appeals and its presiding justice and fifty associate justices. On February 23, 1995, Republic Act No. 7902 was passed, which expanded the jurisdiction of the court effective March 18, 1995. On December 30, 1996, Republic Act No. 8246 created six more divisions in the court, thereby increasing its membership from fifty-one to sixty-nine justices. These additional divisions—three for the
Visayas and three for
Mindanao—paved the way for the appellate court's regionalization. In the Visayas, the court sits in
Cebu City, while
Cagayan de Oro is home to the court for Mindanao. On August 18, 2007, the then-president of the Cebu City Chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, Briccio Joseph Boholst, opposed the abolition of the court in Cebu City, as he claimed that it would cause inconvenience for both litigants and lawyers. Supreme Court Associate Justice
Ruben Reyes was tasked to investigate and submit his recommendations to the High Tribunal regarding the alleged massive graft and corruption of justices, especially in the issuance of
temporary restraining orders. On February 1, 2018, the court celebrated its 82nd anniversary. ==Incumbent justices==