Duterte promotes Court Administrator Midas Marquez to SC justice

President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Jose Midas Marquez as an associate justice of the Supreme Court (SC), Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed Tuesday.

Marquez took his oath as the 192nd magistrate of the top court before Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo on Tuesday afternoon. 

The former court administrator and spokesperson had been nominated several times by the screening body, the Judicial and Bar Council, before he was appointed to replace retired Justice Edgardo delos Santos.

Marquez, who earned his economics and law degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University, began his judicial career in 1991 as a summer apprentice doing legal research in the office of a magistrate while still in law school.

He then became a regular law clerk of several justices until the magistrates appointed him as Court Administrator in 2010. He also held the spokesman position during the terms of former chief justices Reynato Puno, Renato Corona, and Lucas Bersamin.

In a congratulatory message, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines said the appointment was an acknowledgment of Marquez's “long-standing service” to the SC.

Marquez will serve for more than 14 years as an associate justice until he reaches the retirement age of 70 in 2036.

Marquez’s promotion to the SC en banc, however, did not come easily since his bid was once opposed by Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte, daughter of President Duterte. 

Mayor Sara had earlier claimed an SC aspirant was trying to win her favor by allegedly working for the withdrawal of a 2011 disbarment case filed against her over an incident where she punched a court sheriff.

The punching incident happened over the sheriff’s apparent failure to heed the mayor’s call to hold off a demolition until the court order decides on the petition for a temporary restraining order.

In a lengthy explanation to the JBC on September 26, 2018, Marquez said the sheriffs only asked him if they could withdraw the case.

Marquez was then applying for the seat vacated by retired justice and incumbent Ombudsman Samuel Martires. —VBL, GMA News