By GENALYN KABILING
Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas Bernabe will serve as acting Chief Justice until a new head of the Supreme Court is formally appointed by President Duterte, according to a Palace official.
Chief Justice Diosdado M. Peralta retired from the service Saturday, a year before his mandatory retirement at age 70. He was appointed top magistrate by the President in October 2019.
Presidential spokesman Harry Roque said he had “no information yet” on the appointment of a new Chief Justice who will replace Peralta. But he recognized that Bernabe, considered the most senior justice in the Supreme Court, was expected to take over in an acting capacity for the meantime.
“Without appointment, Bernabe, as most senior, becomes acting CJ,” Roque said in a text message.
The President is expected to choose the new Chief Justice from the list of nominees submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC). The nominees included Bernabe and SC Associate Justices Alexander G. Gesmundo and Ramon Paul L. Hernando.
Bernabe, a former Court of Appeals judge, was appointed to the Supreme Court on Sept. 16, 2011.
A native of Plaridel, Bulacan, she earned her law degree from the Ateneo College of Law, and passed the Bar in 1976. She worked as technical assistant in the office of then Justice Lorenzo Relova before joining private practice.
In 1996, she returned to the Judiciary following her appointment as Metropolitan Trial Court Judge of the Makati City Regional Trial Court Branch 66. She was named judge of the Makati RTC Branch 142 in 2000. By March 2004, she was appointed to the Court of Appeals.
