President Duterte has appointed Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Lucas P. Bersamin as Chief Justice and head of the country’s judiciary.
Chief Justice Bersamin took over the post vacated by then Chief Justice Teresita J. Leonardo de Castro who retired last October 10.
He is expected to head the judiciary until midnight of Oct, 17, 2019. On Oct. 18, 2019, he will turn 70, the mandatory retirement age for members of the judiciary.
The President has also appointed Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Rosmari D. Carandang as SC associate justice. She filled up the post vacated by De De Castro as associate justice.
The appointments of Bersamin and Carandang were confirmed by Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra to journalists covering the Department of Justice (DOJ).
With Bersamin’s appointment, a vacancy for the post of associate justice was left in the 15-member SC.
On Jan. 5, 2019, there would be another vacancy with the mandatory retirement of Associate Justice Noel G. Tijam.
Chief Justice Bersamin, who finished his law degree from the University of East, was ninth placer in the 1973 bar examinations. He, thereafter, engaged in private law practice.
In 1986, he was named regional trial court (RTC) judge for Quezon City. In 2003, he was promoted as CA associate justice.
On April 2, 2009, then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, now Speaker of the House of Representatives, promoted Bersamin to the post of SC associate justice.
Carandang was a judge of the Manila City RTC before she was promoted as CA associate justice.
She finished her law degree from the University of the Philippines and placed ninth in the 1975 bar examinations.
Before her promotion to the SC, Justice Carandang was chair of the CA’s third division.
Carandang was the seventh appointee of President Duterte to the SC. The first six appointees were Associate Justices Samuel Martires (who retired to assume the post of Ombudsman), Noel G. Tijam, Andres B. Reyes Jr., Alexander G. Gesmundo, Jose C. Reyes Jr., and Ramon Paul L. Hernando.
This is on top of the President’s appointment of then Chief Justice De Castro and the now Chief Justice Bersamin.
Thus, the President already has nine appointees to the SC.
Based on SC’s website, Bersamin “was the recipient of the Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos Award (Outstanding RTC Judge for 2002) during the 11th Judicial Excellence Awards (JEA).”
It said that in 2000, he was honored for his “Best Decision in Civil Law and Best Decision in Criminal Law awards, an unprecedented achievement that has yet to be duplicated.”
Aside from being a fellow at the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute in Dalhousie University in Halifax, Canada, Bersamin “was recognized as one of theUniversity of the East’s 60 Most Outstanding Alumni Awardees during UE’s Diamond Jubilee Awards.”
“He was UE’s Outstanding Alumnus in the Judiciary in 2001. In 1991, he was cited as Outstanding Alumnus in Government Service, Judiciary and Outstanding Alumnus in the Field of Law by the UE Alumni Association, Inc.,” it added.
SC records showed that Bersamin wrote the decisions, among other rulings, on the cases involving the appointment of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, the acquittal of then President Arroyo on a demurer to evidence; on the grant of bail of former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile who was charged with plunder before the Sandiganbayan; and the declaration as unconstitutional the Priority Development Assistance Fund (PDAF).
The same records also showed that as associate justice, Bersamin voted in favor of the ouster of Ma. Lourdes P. A. Sereno as Chief Justice; the burial of the late former President Ferdinand E. Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani; the declaration of Martial Law in Mindanao and its extension; the constitutionality of the K-12 basic education program for high school; and on the denial of detained Sen. Leila de Lima’s plea to drop the drugs charges against her and for her release from detention. (Rey Panaligan)
