Judicial and Bar Council. Retirement The 1987 Constitution of the Philippines provides that: Supreme Court Justices are obliged to retire upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Some Justices have opted to retire before reaching the age of 70, such as Florentino Feliciano, who retired at 67 to accept appointment to the Appellate Body of the World Trade Organization and Alicia Austria-Martinez who retired at 68 due to health reasons. Since 1901, Associate Justice Austria-Martinez was one of the first to opt for an early retirement from the service. In September 2008, Justice Martinez, citing health reasons, filed a letter with the Court through Chief Justice Reynato Puno, informing her colleagues of her intention to avail of early retirement effective April 30, 2009, or 15 months before her compulsory retirement on December 19, 2010. This was followed by Justice Martin Villarama Jr., who also retired prior to the age of 70 in January 2016 due to health reasons. Seat The Supreme Court currently meets at the Supreme Court Main Building along Padre Faura Street, between the Department of Justice and the University of the Philippines Manila’s Rizal Hall. The Court first met in 1901 at the Ayuntamiento de Manila in Plaza Roma, Intramuros with the Salas De Sessiones serving as the Session Hall. The Court eventually transferred to the Old Legislative Building together with Philippine Legislature in 1941 under Chief Justice José P. Laurel. During World War II, the Court temporarily transferred to Mabini Hall of the Malacañang Palace due to the destruction of the Old Legislative Building and the Ayuntamiento. In 1951, the Court transferred back to what is now the Court’s Old Building, originally built to house of School of Fine Arts and Conservatory of Music of the University of the Philippines. The façade of this building displays the busts of the first nine Chief Justices of the Supreme Court and the statues of Lady Justice and Moses at its entrance. The Court transferred to its current address in 1991, after the Department of Foreign Affairs, which previously occupied the edifice, transferred to Roxas Boulevard, Pasay City. The current main building of the Supreme Court was designed by the Filipino architect Antonio Toledo in accordance to the 1905 Burnham Plan of Manila. The four pillars at the façade of the Supreme Court represent the four levels of the hierarchy of the judiciary. The bronze statues of the