Ex-CJ Puno, Corona widow back Midas Marquez’s bid for SC seat

Former Chief Justice Reynato Puno and the widow of former Chief Justice Renato Corona have endorsed Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez for the position of Supreme Court (SC) associate justice.

In separate letters to President Rodrigo Duterte, Puno and Ma. Cristina Roco-Corona vouched for Marquez's competence to occupy the seat to be vacated by retiring Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco, Jr.

Marquez, who started his career at the SC as a summer apprentice in 1991, has made it to the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for the upcoming vacancy.

"All these years, I have known Midas to be with a strong moral fiber. His integrity is beyond reproach. His intellectual ability is superior. His loyalty is unwavering," Puno said in a letter dated July 30.

"His compassion for the less fortunate is well-known. And his talent for writing is manifested by the number of law books he has authored and edited," he said.

Marquez had been one of Puno's senior lawyers and was appointed chief of staff and SC spokesperson when the latter was named chief justice in 2006.

"I am pleased to write this letter because it is my firm belief that Midas, as I fondly call him, is indeed qualified - to the highest degree - for a seat in the Supreme Court," Puno said.

Meanwhile, Roco-Corona said she and her late husband, who was impeached and convicted in 2012, had both witnessed the ''impressive performance" of Marquez in his various capacities in the High Court.

"My husband spoke very highly of Justice Marquez. They worked closely and harmoniously with each other for over 10 years," she said in a letter dated July 31.

She said the "foremost quality" they saw in Marquez was his "dedication and loyalty to the institution of the Supreme Court," and added that he also had a "strong commitment to the vision of an independent judiciary."

She likewise said "no one can beat or even match" Marquez's "institutional memory" given his almost 30-year career at the High Court.

"Above all, I would like to extol his untainted integrity that is consistent with the tenets of the Rule of Law. When you review his record and take his long career in the judiciary as a whole, you will observe that it is his dedication and loyalty to the rule of law and the Supreme Court as an institution that has reigned supreme," she said.

Apart from Marquez, those who made the JBC's shortlist were Court of Appeals justices Apolinario Bruselas, Rosmari Carandang, Ramon Garcia, Ramon Hernando, Amy Lazaro-Javier, Jose Reyes Jr., and former Ateneo De Manila University College of Law Dean Cesar Villanueva. —NB, GMA News