CEBUANA judge Geraldine Faith Econg was recently appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as one of six Sandiganbayan justices.
Econg, former presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court Branch 9 in Cebu City, is among the six new justices who will comprise the two additional divisions of the Sandiganbayan.
Under RA 10660, or the law “strengthening the functional and structural organization of the Sandiganbayan,” the anti-graft court will now have seven divisions with three members each.
Aside from Econg, the other new justices of the Sandiganbayan are Bulacan Judge Ma. Theresa Mendoza-Arcega; Palace undersecretaries Reynaldo Cruz and Michael Frederick Musngi; Asst. Solicitor General Karl Miranda; and lawyer Zaldy Trepeses, protocol officer of Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno .
The six new justices of the Sandiganbayan were selected by the President from a list of 37 nominees.
Econg, a graduate of the University of San Carlos College of Law, served as judge of the Municipal Trial Court in Cities (MCCT) in 2002 before she was appointed RTC judge two years after.
She handled the parricide case of cult leader Ruben Ecleo, Jr. before she eventually inhibited herself from the case.
In 2010, Econg was appointed to serve as director of the Program Management Office of the Supreme Court.
She was also named head of the Regional Court Administration Office in Cebu.
Econg was earlier impleaded in an administrative case in connection to a marriage scam in Cebu. The case was eventually dropped for “lack of merit.”
In 2014, she made it to the shortlist to succeed the deputy Ombudsman in the Visayas.
But another applicant was named to the position.