Part 2: Other applicants vying to be Marcos’ 1st Supreme Court justice pick

2 weeks ago 12

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Other applicants vying to be Marcos’ 1st Supreme Court justice pick

PANEL. The Judicial and Bar Council panel.

SC Office of the Spokesperson

This batch of applicants includes the current presiding justice of the Court of Appeals, justices from other appellate courts, and the Philippine representative to the World Trade Organization, among others

Last of 2 parts
Part 1: Applicants vying to be Marcos’ first Supreme Court justice pick

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will name his first Supreme Court (SC) justice soon as Associate Justice Mario Lopez is set to retire on June 7.

The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), mandated to screen applicants for high judicial positions, held the public interviews for the candidates on May 14, 15, 16, and 21. The JBC will later forward a short list to Marcos since the President is mandated to appoint justices, including the chief justice.

There were 17 applicants, but Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Ronald Moreno withdrew his application.

So far, the High Court is dominated by appointees of former president Rodrigo Duterte, including Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo.

Only two are appointed by the late former president Benigno Aquino III: Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen and Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.

Here’s the continuation of the list of candidates vying to become the first associate justice appointee of President Marcos:

9. Fernanda Lampas Peralta

Current CA presiding justice and chairperson of the First Division.
She was appointed to the CA on February 9, 2004, and will retire from the judiciary on June 16, 2030.
She is the wife of former chief justice Diosdado Peralta. They have four children.
Lampas Peralta earned her law degree from San Beda University in 1984.
She worked in the corporate field as a certified public accountant and lawyer, before working under the Office of the Solicitor General in 1986.
Lampas Peralta is among the justices who concurred in the CA decision that denied the application for protective writs of red-tagged environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano.
In 2013, she also concurred in the CA ruling that affirmed its decision clearing former Palawan governor Joel Reyes in the 2011 killing of broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega. The SC ordered Reyes’ rearrest in 2023, and the suspect has been under custody since September 2024.
During chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s bout with her quo warranto case, Sereno aimed for the exclusion of then-associate justice Diosdado Peralta and three other justices in her case. Sereno claimed the then-associate justice had bias because he believed it was Sereno who decided to exclude Lampas Peralta from the list of applicants for CA presiding justice in 2017.
Sereno claimed Peralta himself said this in at least two impeachment hearings.

10. Ronaldo Roberto Martin

Current CA associate justice, chairperson of the 16th Division.
Appointed to the CA on May 13, 2015, and will retire from the judiciary on October 08, 2034.
He has previously applied for the SC associate justice post.
Martin is the ponente of the CA decision that affirmed the Office of the Ombudsman’s ruling to perpetually bar former Makati mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. from holding office over irregularities in the P1.3-billion Makati Science High School building project.
He is also the ponente of the CA decision that ordered the reinstatement and the award of full back wages and benefits of GMA Network’s 51 workers fired for protesting their non-regularization.

11. Karl Miranda

Current Sandiganbayan associate justice, chairperson of the Third Division. Appointed to the anti-graft court on January 20, 2016, and will retire from the judiciary on October 9, 2027.
He earned his business management degree from the Ateneo de Manila University, and his law degree from the UP College of Law. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University.
He joined the Office of the Solicitor General in 1986, and was appointed Assistant Solicitor General in 1999, heading the Sedfrey A. Ordoñez Division. Under the OSG, he worked on big ticket cases like Sarah Balabagan’s appeal and the Flor Contemplacion case.
He also taught persons deprived of liberty inside the New Bilibid Prison studying to complete their degrees while detained.
At the Sandiganbayan, he was involved in many cases. He concurred in the anti-graft court’s ruling that affirmed the conviction of former Maguindanao governor Datu Sajid Ampatuan on 130 criminal cases. He also voted in favor of affirming Ampatuan’s graft and malversation conviction involving P400 million in public funds meant for farm-to-market roads in Maguindanao.
Miranda also concurred in the decision that acquitted Senator JV Ejercito of technical malversation over the alleged unlawful diversion of San Juan City’s calamity fund when Ejercito was the mayor. He also voted in 2020 in favor of the ruling that acquitted Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia in the case involving the province’s purchase of a P98.8-million property that was mostly underwater.

12. Maria Concepcion Noche

Professorial lecturer at the Philippine Judicial Academy, the “training school for justices, judges, court personnel, lawyers, and aspirants to judicial posts.”
Once served as dean of the University of Asia and the Pacific Institute of Law. She teaches civil procedure and legal profession in the said academic institution.
Her undergraduate degree is biology and she holds a master of laws degree in comparative and international law. Noche has decades of law practice. She specializes in litigation and corporate law.
In 1983, she entered the Office of the President as a presidential staff legal officer. Two years later, she joined the Feria Law Offices and later became the first woman partner of the said firm, according to her UA&P profile.
Noche also worked closely with former SC associate justice Jose Feria. They co-authored two volumes of the book on Civil Procedure which received the SC’s Centenary Book Award for being a “scholarly reference in the field of law.”

13. Maria Rowena San Pedro

Court of Tax Appeals Associate Justice, Second Division member
San Pedro earned her communications degree from UP, finishing cum laude and receiving the presidential pin and student council service award in 1986. She earned her law degree from the UP College of Law in 1990, graduating in the top 20 of her batch.
She started her career in the judiciary as court attorney in the CA, and then later in the SC. She also served as presiding judge of Pasig City Metropolitan and Regional Trial Courts (RTC), where she handled family and commercial court cases.
In 2011, she was awarded the Judicial Excellence Award (Chief Justice Ramon Avanceña Award) and was one of the three most outstanding judges recognized by the Society for Judicial Excellence.
San Pedro also taught law at the Ateneo de Manila University and served as Mandatory Continuing Legal Education lecturer at the UP Law Center.
She served as Bar examiner twice: for Mercantile Law in 2019, and then for The Law Pertaining to the State and its Relationship with its Citizens in 2020/2021.
As Pasig City judge, she handled Rappler’s securities and code case that stemmed from an anti-dummy complaint. In 2019, she inhibited herself from the case, which was later transferred to a different RTC branch.

14. Walter Ong

Current CA Associate Justice, Sixth Division senior member.
Appointed to the CA on December 12, 2017, and will retire from the judiciary on October 13, 2038.
Before his appointment in the appellate court, he was shortlisted by the JBC for a Sandiganbayan Associate Justice post. He was also in private practice.
Ong is the brother of former Sandiganbayan associate justice Gregory Ong, who was dismissed in 2014 over his alleged links to pork barrel-implicated Janet Napoles.
He concurred in the CA decision that ordered the reinstatement and the award of full back wages and benefits of GMA Network’s 51 workers fired for protesting their non-regularization.

15. Manuel Antonio Teehankee

Current Philippine Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization in Geneva. He held the same post from 2004 to 2011. He was also appointed by Duterte to the same post in 2017.
Son of former chief justice Claudio Teehankee
Ateneo Law School valedictorian in 1983, and 1984 Bar Examinations topnotcher. He also taught International Law at Ateneo.
A Chevening scholar, Teehankee holds masters degrees in law and political science.
Teehankee was also a research fellow at the Graduate Institute in Geneva, where he obtained his doctor of philosophy degree in International Law.
Under former president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Teehankee served as Department of Justice undersecretary from 2001 to 2003, and as acting Government Corporate Counsel in 2003.
In 2014, Teehankee was found guilty of usury and was sentenced to 60 days on probation and fined 400 Swiss Francs by the Geneva Police Court in Switzerland. This case stemmed from a Filipina domestic worker who pressed charges against him in 2005. Teehankee acknowledged his mistake and assured the public that he complied with the Swiss requirements on wages.

16. Raul Villanueva

Current SC Court Administrator
He was appointed to his current position in March 2022.
Villanueva became part of the judiciary in 2002 after his appointment as Presiding Judge of Las Piñas City RTC Branch 255. He later served as Las Piñas RTC Executive Judge.
He also served as acting Presiding Judge of Taguig City RTC Branch 267 and Manila RTC Branch 4.
In 2010, he was appointed Deputy Court Administrator and served in the said position until his 2022 appointment. Before his appointment in 2022, he served as officer-in-charge of the Office of the Court Administrator following the appointment of Associate Justice Jose Midas Marquez to the SC.
A native of Ilocos Sur, Villanueva graduated at the top of his class in Narvacan South Central School in 1976, and with honors in high school from Lourdes School in Quezon City in 1981.
In 1985, he obtained his economics degree from UP. He finished law in the same university in 1990.

– Rappler.com

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