MANILA, Philippines (Updated 4:37 p.m.) — President Rodrigo Duterte has picked former Elections Commissioner Antonio Kho Jr. as the newest Supreme Court associate justice.
SC spokesperson Brian Hosaka confirmed Kho’s appointment in a message to reporters, which was earlier confirmed by a source to Philstar.com.
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“I confirm that the [SC] through the Office of Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo received this afternoon the appointment papers of former Comelec Comissioner Antonio Kho, Jr. as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines,” Hosaka said.
Kho will take over the seat vacated by retired Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang who bowed out of the SC early in January.
Duterte appointed Kho to the Commission on Elections in July 2018, merely three months since he resigned from his post from the Department of Justice.
He retired from the poll body on February 2.
At the Comelec, Kho sat at the poll body’s Second Division that junked the Petition to Cancel the Certificate of Candidacy of presidential aspirant Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr.
The ruling was penned by now-Comelec Chair Socorro Inting and is currently under appeal. It is also expected to reach the SC.
If the SC decides to tackle the cases against Marcos, Kho, however, may choose to inhibit from the proceedings.
Who is Kho?
Kho is formerly a justice undersecretary, under the helm of current commissioner of the National Police Commission Vitaliano Aguirre II. He is also a fraternity brother of Duterte.
During his stint at the DOJ, Kho supervised the National Prosecution Service, the Office of the Legal Staff (State Counsels), the Technical Staff, the Bureau of Corrections, the Office of Competition, and the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel, according to his Comelec profile.
Aguirre resigned in April 2018, and Guevarra has since taken over the helm of the justice department.
On April 30, 2018, Guevarra said justice undersecretaries and assistant secretaries who served under Aguirre have all tendered their courtesy resignations.
Duterte is also set to fill another vacancy at the SC, with the retirement of Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe in May. By then, the SC would be packed with 13 Duterte appointees.