Senator Francis “Kiko” Pangilinan has introduced Senate Bill No. 1844, also known as the Comprehensive Legal Education Reform Act, to strengthen the Legal Education Board (LEB) by establishing a Commission on Legal Education (CLED). The CLED will regulate legal education institutions and actively promote their development through scholarships, grants, and incentives. The proposed measure amends Republic Act No. 7662, or the Legal Education Reform Act of 1993, which created the LEB to set standards for law schools, supervise legal education institutions, and promote improvements in the quality of legal instruction nationwide.

Under the bill, the CLED will regulate legal education institutions while promoting their development through scholarships, grants, incentives, and institutional support mechanisms. As a lawyer, Pangilinan underscored the need to enhance the existing framework by strengthening administrative and budgetary capacity, clarifying jurisdictional authority, and ensuring operational continuity.

The CLED shall formulate and implement strategic plans, policies, priorities, and programs on legal education and research, and prescribe standards for the accreditation of legal education institutions and related programs. It shall likewise monitor and evaluate the performance of these institutions to determine their eligibility for incentives, subsidies, and other forms of support.

The measure further authorizes the CLED to review and update national standards affecting legal education to ensure alignment with international benchmarks, and define standards for the accreditation of legal education institutions and related programs. “The passage of this measure is necessary to carry out these reforms and ensure the continued development of lawyers who are knowledgeable, skilled, ethical, socially committed, and prepared to serve the nation with integrity,” the senator said.