A look at the candidates for chief justice
MANILA — Five lawyers are in the running to be the country’s next top judge. On Thursday, they will face the Judicial and Bar Council to defend their qualifications.
Under the 1987 Constitution, President Rodrigo Duterte needs to appoint a chief justice within 90 days of the vacancy being created, making September 16 the deadline to name his pick.
The SC, in May, voted 8-6 to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno over missing wealth declaration documents. The tribunal affirmed the controversial ruling in June. The SC also immediately ordered the JBC to start processing applications for the chief justice post.
Here is a quick look at the profiles of the five aspiring to head the judiciary.
LUCAS BERSAMIN
Bersamin is the fifth most senior justice of the SC. He received the most votes from his colleagues to become the next chief justice.
He was appointed by President Gloria MacapagalArroyo, now the House speaker, on April 2, 2009.
Bersamin obtained his law degree from the University of the East and ranked ninth in the Bar exams in 1973 with an average of 86.3%.
Bersamin engaged in a private legal practice before he was appointed as a trial court judge in November 1986.
During his stint as a trial court judge, Bersamin received the Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos Award (Outstanding RTC Judge) in 2002. In 2000, he bagged the Best Decision in Civil Law and Best Decision in Criminal Law recognitions.
According to his profile at the SC website, Bersamin bagged an “unprecedented achievement that has yet to be duplicated.”
Among the most notable cases that Bersamin penned at the SC are the ruling that granted former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile bail due to humanitarian grounds, and the decision that ruled that there was no illegal retrenchment of more than 1,000 flight attendants and stewards of Philippine Airlines.
If he is appointed chief justice, he will hold the position until October 18, 2019.
TERESITA DE CASTRO
De Castro is the most senior among the SC justices vying for the chief justice post.
She has been serving the Judiciary for more than four decades—starting as a law clerk at the SC’s Office of the Clerk of Court in 1973 and rising to become a justice of the SC in 2007.
De Castro is an alumna of the University of the Philippines, where she graduated Number 4 in her law school class. She also attended law courses at the International Law Institute in Washington D.C. and Harvard Law School’s Program of Instruction for Lawyers in Massachusetts.
During her stint at the Sandiganbayan, De Castro sat as the presiding justice and chair of the Sandiganbayan Special Division that convicted former president Joseph Ejercito Estrada of plunder.
She was also the ponente of the ruling that allowed Estrada to keep his post as Manila mayor when former mayor Alfredo Lim and asked the SC to reverse the Comelec decision allowing the pardoned plunderer to run for office.
As a presiding justice of the anti-graft court, De Castro received the Chief Justice Davide Judicial Reform Award in 2005.
She also sits as president of the Philippine Women Judges Association. De Castro landed in the headlines during the height of the ouster cases against Sereno. She was one of the resource persons at the impeachment proceedings at the House and her line of questioning during the oral arguments on the quo warranto case seemed to confirm a rift between the two justices.
The tension between the two even spilled over to public events.
De Castro will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 on October.
DIOSDADO PERALTA
Arroyo appointed Peralta to the high court in 2009.
He graduated from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law in 1979.
Peralta entered