A chief justice for less than two months
The dream of every Filipino lawyer is to become an Associate Justice of the High Tribunal. To become the chief justice is a gift from God. So far only 25 Filipinos have achieved this, starting from Cayetano Arellano, who was appointed by the US government in 1901 and served with Americans as associate justice until 1920. Chief Justice Teresita Jose Leonardo-de Castro is the twenty-fifth chief justice of the land. She will lead the highest court for only 42 days, shorter than the existing record of the late chief justice Pedro Yap who served only for 72 days in 1988. Incidentally, Yap was the first Cebuano to occupy that post as the seventeenth, followed by Marcelo B. Fernan as the eighteenth, and Hilario Davide Jr. as the twentieth ‘’el primus inter pares,” the first among equals. Andres Narvasa was the nineteenth chief magistrate of the land.
De Castro’s detractors quickly criticized her appointment as “bayad utang” or reward by Malacañan for helping oust Maria Lourdes Sereno. That was the same criticism hurled by Senator Jinggoy Estrada when GMA appointed de Castro associate justice in 2007 after the Sandiganbayan division she headed convicted President Erap of plunder. This columnist, however, believes that de Castro very well deserves her appointment. I would have preferred my neighbor and former fellow Law professor and Bar reviewer Justice Lucas Bersamin, a Bar topnotcher and experienced jurist, or my other neighbor Diosdado Peralta, also my former colleague in the academe and in Bar review. But then, I salute the president for honoring the tradition of seniority. Bersamin can be appointed in October and Peralta in 2019 after Bersamin retires.
De Castro was a scholar and honor student in UP. She is a member of exclusive honor societies like the Phi Kappa Phi International Honor Society, Pi Gamma Mu International Honor society, Order of Purple Feather UP Law Honor Society, Portia Sorority, and UP’s Sigma Alpha Sorority. She has been a government employee all her life. After passing the 1972 Bar, she joined the government as a law clerk in the Supreme Court. She never practiced as a trial lawyer. From 1973 to 1978 she remained in the SC, then from 1978 to 1995, she worked in various capacities in the DOJ. She was appointed a Sandiganbayan Justice in 1995, and elevated to the Supreme Court as associate justice in 2007.
She voted to oust Sereno by Quo Warranto and also to allow the burial of Marcos’ remains in the Libingan ng Mga Bayani. She testified before the House of Representatives against Sereno. She is one of the seven justices sought to be impeached by opposition representatives led by Edcel Lagman of Albay.
De Castro is the second woman to be appointed chief justice. She hardly has enough time to make significant legacies with only 42 days. But her appointment proves that, unlike PNoy who had no respect for seniority, President Rodrigo Duterte honors the traditions in the highest court of the land.
We congratulate CJ Tess and applaud President Digong for an excellent choice.
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