The Constitutional Court has rejected a petition filed by the ruling People Power Party seeking to invalidate legislation railroaded through parliament by the main opposition Democratic Party last year limiting the prosecution’s investigative power.

The court voted five to four to dismiss the petition on Thursday, refusing to rule against the actions by the chair of the legislation committee in passing the prosecution reform bills out of committee.

While the court ruled that the laws themselves are valid, the right of lawmakers to deliberate and vote was violated due to flaws in the legislative process of the committee at the time. The court said this facilitated the passage of the bills without the opportunity for discussion in the plenary session.

The National Assembly passed two bills to reform the prosecution’s investigative authority last April and May, limiting the scope of the supplementary investigations and reducing the prosecution's investigative powers to only two types of crimes from the initial six before stripping them completely.