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SC Associate Justice Bersamin named new Chief Justice


President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin as the country's new Chief Justice, according to Carlo Mateo's report on Dobol B sa News TV.

Bersamin's appointment papers have been released by the Office of the Executive Secretary, Justice Secretary and Judicial and Bar Council ex-officio member Menardo Guevarra said Wednesday.

Earlier reports citing unnamed sources revealed Bersamin has been designated the new leader of the Philippine judiciary.

Bersamin, 69, replaced Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, who retired in October after serving as chief justice for only 41 days, the shortest term in the 117-year history of the Supreme Court.

He will serve as top magistrate for less than a year or until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 on October 18 next year.

Duterte said on Tuesday night that seniority was a factor in his decision to pick the new chief justice. The President gave the same reason when he appointed De Castro in August as she was the most senior among the three nominees.

With 32 years of service, Bersamin is currently the most senior SC Justice in the Judiciary. At the high court, he is the third most senior magistrate but the most senior justice in terms of service in courts.

Bersamin beat out Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Andres Reyes Jr. for the post.

A native of Abra province, Bersamin joined the judiciary in November 1986 when he was appointed as Quezon City trial court judge. He was promoted to the Court of Appeals in March 2003 prior to his appointment to the SC in April 2009.

Bersamin earned his law degree from the University of the East in 1973 and placed ninth in the Bar Examinations of the same year.

Bersamin, an appointee of former President and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, voted in favor of the burial of the late former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani and the petition that sought to expel Maria Lourdes Sereno as chief justice over an alleged failure to file some mandatory asset declarations.

He wrote the SC decision that acquitted  Arroyo of plunder and the one that granted bail to former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, who is charged with plunder over the pork barrel scam, on humanitarian grounds.

The new chief justice also backed the continued detention of Senator Leila De Lima over drug charges and Duterte’s martial law declaration in Mindanao and its year-long extension. —with Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/KBK, GMA News

 

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