President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro as the new Chief Justice, according to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, an ex-officio member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).
“I have been informed that the President’s choice has been publicly announced by SAP Bong Go and that the formal appointment will be released by ES medialdea on Tuesday,” said Guevarra.
“Her appointment as chief justice is a fitting finale to her illustrious career in both the dept of justice and the judiciary,” added Guevarra.
She bested Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin.
De Castro will be serving up to Oct. 8, 2018.
Who is Justice de Castro?
Associate Justice Teresita J. Leonardo-de Castro is the second most senior Associate Justice of the Supreme Court.
Born Oct. 10, 1948, de Castro will retire at a mandatory age of 70 on Oct. 10, 2018. She started her career as law clerk from the Supreme Court. Then, she moved to the Department of Justice (DOJ) to work as a state counsel. She was eventually appointed a Sandiganbayan Associate Justice and became its Presiding Justice.
During her stint as a Sandiganbayan justice, she authored the decision convicting former President and now Manila Mayor Joseph Estrada of plunder.
In 2015, the Supreme Court dismissed the disqualification case against Estrada saying he was eligible to run for Mayor of Manila. It was De Castro who penned the decision.
In 2008, de Castro is also the author of the Supreme Court decision that affirmed the executive privilege invoked by former socio-economic planning secretary Romulo Neri.
It was also De Castro, the justice in-charge on the case of the senior citizens’ party-list who recommended that the Commission on Election (Comelec) be stopped from implementing its order disqualifying the Coalition of Senior Citizens in the Philippines. The decision became controversial after she accused then Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno of altering the “restraining order.”
De Castro graduated from the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law in 1972 with a certificate of merit award for academic excellence.