NUPL calls on Peralta to lead efforts in insulating courts from politics

The new Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta must lead in insulating the judiciary from political influence and accommodation, the National Union of People's Lawyers said on Thursday.

President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Peralta to succeed Lucas Bersamin, who retired last week.

The experienced senior jurist has more than two years left on the bench before his own retirement in March 2022.

"We hope and expect the new Chief Justice to uphold judicial independence, preserve the separation of powers, and guarantee checks and balances," NUPL president Edre Olalia said in a statement.

"The Chief must lead in strengthening public confidence in the judicial system by instituting procedural reforms and insulate it from political influence, behest and accommodation," he said.

Peralta is Duterte's third chief justice appointee, following Bersamin and Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, who replaced the ousted Maria Lourdes Sereno. It was former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who appointed Peralta to the SC in 2009.

Peralta will lead a tribunal composed mostly of Duterte appointees.

The president will soon name three more associate justices to vacancies created by Peralta becoming chief justice and by the retirement of Associate Justices Francis Jardeleza and Antonio Carpio.

Jardeleza retired last month; Carpio on Saturday.

Protect lawyers

Olalia urged Peralta to take "concrete and effective" measures to protect lawyers and judges from attacks.

He said these would take the form of "independent, reliable, credible and consistent" investigation and prosecution of attackers.

At least 42 lawyers have been killed since Duterte came into power in 2016, according to the NUPL's monitoring. Olalia said court rules on the writ of amparo also have to be revisited to make it a "realistic" remedy for lawyers under threat.

The NUPL itself sought protection from the courts but was denied by the Court of Appeals this year.

The lawyer also challenged the new chief magistrate to prove that the SC is "the last bastion of democracy," and to "tilt the balance between the powerful and influential and the poor and the oppressed."

"Otherwise, the system will be perceived by the public as just another political institution garbed in legal niceties and majesty but essentially beholden to the political and economic powers that be," he said.

Speedy trial

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said he thinks Peralta, who is known for his quick disposition of cases from his time as a trial court judge to his years in the High Court, will continue to focus on speedy trial.

He also said that seniority played in Peralta's favor -- Peralta senior to both Associate Justices Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Andres Reyes, Jr., the other two candidates to the post.

University of Santo Tomas law dean Nilo Divina welcomed Peralta's appointment.

Divina called Peralta, who studied and taught law in the UST Faculty of Civil Law, a "man of wisdom and action" and "one of the best jurists in our country."

"I am confident that during his tenure, the Supreme Court will become an even more cohesive and respectable institution," Divina said in a statement. —NB, GMA News