Peralta says he has no regrets, eyes return to teaching after retirement

Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta on Friday expressed no regret as he prepares to leave the judiciary one year ahead of his mandatory retirement.

Peralta will hang up his robe on his 69th birthday on March 27 after 12 years on the bench, with the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) now searching for his replacement who will be appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte.

“I cannot help but look back at my life’s work and feel a more than a modest amount of pride. I will retire without regrets knowing that I did all that I could for the law, for the courts, and for the nation,” Peralta said in a speech after receiving his honorary doctorate of law degree from Tarlac State University.

The outgoing top magistrate said he was looking forward to the world outside the Supreme Court “with the thought that at my age life is still full of possibilities,” including plans to return to teaching.

“As early as now, I am planning to return to the teaching profession which holds a special place in my heart. It is my other lifelong passion, having been a professor and a Bar reviewer in several schools prior to my appointment to the Supreme Court. The value of education has always been inculcated in me,” he said.

Peralta also spoke about his three-point plan for the judiciary. These include the declogging of court dockets, adoption of reforms that will simplify the court procedures and processes and continued promotion of discipline and responsive judiciary.

“These three were all geared towards the realization of a just, speedy and less expensive system of case adjudication,” he said. 

The Laoag native and University of Santo Tomas (UST) law alumnus started out as a public prosecutor in 1987 then went on to become a trial court judge in September 1994, an associate justice and later the presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan, before he was appointed to the SC in January 2009.

Duterte appointed him to the Philippines’ top judicial post in October 2019.

Peralta had also served as a professor of law in the UST Faculty of Civil Law, the Ateneo de Manila University, San Beda College of Law, the University of the East, and the University of the Philippines Law Center as well as a lecturer at the Philippine Judicial Academy.

“I stand before you today not because of the number of things I have achieved as a magistrate of the Supreme Court or because of the things that I have done for the judiciary but because of the work ethic that I developed and the genuine passion for my work that I nurture in all my years in public service,” he said.

He added his work experiences have taught him that the key to success is “exerting one’s best effort in whatever undertaking.”

“I have said before that one may be the most naturally talented individual or the most mentally gifted person in his or her class, but without persistent hard work and discipline that person will never realize true success in life for there is no other alternative to hard work,” Peralta said.

“We are and we will always be the sum of our choices.” --KBK, GMA News