The Supreme Court has announced the retirement of Justice Cancio Garcia from government service.
After 46 years of public service, Garcia leaves the bench with several landmark decisions. Among these is the Nicolas Lewis vs. Commission on Elections (Comelec), where the Supreme Court ruled, with Garcia writing the decision, that dual citizens may exercise the right of suffrage as overseas absentee voters under Republic Act 9189, or the Absentee Voting Law.
After finishing his law at the University of the Philippines where he was a member of the Purple Feather of the UP Law Honor Society in 1961, Garcia began his government career the following year as a legal assistant, and later as junior presidential staff assistant at the Office of the President’s (OP) Legal Office.
Ten years later, Garcia was appointed solicitor at the Office of the Solicitor General.
Born on Oct. 20, 1937 to Juan Garcia and Benedicta Castillo, Garcia peddled ice cream on a cart as a boy before graduating at P. Gomez Elementary School and Arellano High School.
“When you are nearing retirement, your tendency is to look back,” Garcia said.
“I remember our humble beginnings. My parents were illiterate. They had no formal education. I cannot believe it,” he said.
“Poverty is no obstacle when you are determined to pursue a career in life and when you are blessed with parents who could guide you and lead you to the right path,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he still enlightens his law clerks, up to this day, with the inspiring story that he had helped his father push the ice cream cart to cross a bridge in Sta. Mesa from grade six up to the time he graduated in high school.
“Whenever I pass that bridge, I tell myself: ‘itong tulay na ‘to ay pinaldak ng mga paa ko.’ (This is the bridge where my feet have tread a countless number of times),” Garcia would always say.
Poverty was never an issue for the young lawyer as he continued to persevere.
In 1974, he was named city judge at the Caloocan City Court. He was also chosen as regional trial court judge in Angeles City, and later in Caloocan City, where he was recognized as “Caloocan’s Best.”
Garcia rejoined the Office of the President as assistant executive secretary for legal affairs to then President Corazon Aquino in 1988. Two years later Aquino named him as associate justice of the Court of Appeals.
Garcia’s biggest break came in 2003 when he was appointed presiding justice of the Court of Appeals. On Oct. 6, 2005, President Arroyo appointed him associate justice of the Supreme Court.