Pimentel v.

LEB

Facts:

Several lawyers and law professors assailed the constitutionality of the RA 7662 or the
Legal Education Reform Act, which created the Legal Education Board (LEB). In extension, the
petitioners assail the constitutionality of LEB issuances establishing and implementing the
PhiLSAT or the Philippine Law School Admission Test, the nationwide law school aptitude test.

Petitioners argue that the law creating the LEB is an encroachment upon the rule-making
power of the Judiciary concerning the practice of law, violates the institutional academic
freedom, and violates a law school aspirant’s right to education.

Issue:

Does the implementation of the PhiLSAT violate the student’s right to quality education?

Ruling:

The right to receive higher education is not absolute.

There is uniformity in jurisprudence holding that the authority to set the admission and
academic requirements used to assess the merit and capacity of the individual to be admitted and
retained in higher educational institutions lie with the institutions themselves in the exercise of
their academic freedom.

While there is a right to quality higher education, such right is principally subject to the

broad academic freedom of higher educational institutions to impose fair, reasonable, and
equitable admission and academic requirements. Plainly stated, the right to receive education is
not and should not be taken to mean as a right to be admitted to educational institutions.