Duterte names new Sandiganbayan justice, BI deputy commissioner

President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed a new justice of the Sandiganbayan and deputy commissioner of the Bureau of Immigration, according to documents released by Malacañang on Wednesday.

Duterte named Makati City Regional Trial Court Judge Ronald Moreno to the post vacated by former Sandiganbayan magistrate and now Supreme Court Justice Alexander Gesmundo. Moreno's appointment paper was dated June 8, 2018.

The President, meanwhile, appointed lawyer Aldwin Alegre as BI deputy commissioner on January 15 this year. He succeeds Aimee Torrefranca-Neri who resigned in April last year.

Up until Alegre's appointment, Marc Red Mariñas, the agency’s port operations division chief, had been holding the position of OIC deputy commissioner.

Moreno beat out Makati RTC Judge Gina Bibat-Palamos, Sta. Cruz, Laguna RTC Judge Divinagracia Bustos-Ongkeko and Ligao, Albay RTC Judge Edwin Ma-alat for the post based on the shortlist forwarded to Malacañang by the screening body Judicial and Bar Council.

Moreno, who became RTC judge in 2012, finished his law degree from the University of Santo Tomas in 1995 and passed the Bar examinations a year later. He is also a former executive judge of the Makati Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC). — Virgil Lopez/RSJ, GMA News