De Castro nominated to replace Ombudsman Morales

Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro was nominated to replace Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, whose term will end in July. (Photo: Supreme Court of the Philippines)

Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro was nominated to replace Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, whose term will end in July.

Retired associate justice Arturo Brion, in a letter to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) dated May 3, nominated De Castro, who is set to retire from the Supreme Court (SC) this October.

De Castro’s 45 years in government service was cited by Brion as basis for the nomination.

“Through all these years, she has served the government with competence, probity and integrity,” the retired associate justice said in his nomination letter.

“Her long years in the prosecutorial service (almost 19 years) and in the Sandiganbayan (more than 10 years), not to mention her more than a decade of experience as an associate justice of the Supreme Court qualify her for the position of Ombudsman,” he added.

As proof of the retiring associate justice’s competence, Brion noted numerous awards De Castro has received, including the Presidential Medal of Merit awarded by then President Fidel V. Ramos in 1988 for “Exceptionally Meritorious and Valuable Service Rendered and Remarkable Accomplishments,” and the Chief Justice Davide Judicial Reform Award in 2005 for the reforms she spearheaded and adopted in the Sandiganbayan.

“I hope that this nomination shall merit the Honorable Council’s consideration, approval, and the inclusion of Associate Justice Teresita J. Leonardo-De Castro as one of the Council’s nominees for appointment to the position of Ombudsman,” Brion stressed.

De Castro, however, has not yet accepted the nomination, which is vital for her to be considered by the JBC for the position.

Before she was appointed to the high court in December 2007, De Castro served as presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan and headed the anti-graft court’s special division on the plunder and perjury trial of former President Joseph Estrada. She also held the position of President-elect for the term 2012-2014 of the International Association of Women Judges (IAWJ).

De Castro is an alumna of the University of the Philippines (UP) where she was a consistent college and university scholar.
She finished her law degree in 1972 and was among the top four in her class.

She began her public service in the SC as a law clerk on February 19, 1973. De Castro served the high court in another capacity, this time, as judicial assistant and a member of the technical staff of the late Chief Justice Fred Ruiz Castro from 1975 to 1978.

She then moved to the Department of Justice (DOJ) as State Counsel I in December 1978 and rose from the ranks culminating in her appointment in 1997 as Assistant Chief State Counsel.

The associate justice dominated the headlines as she and Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno engage in a fiery exchange last month as the SC began oral arguments on the quo warranto petition to remove the top magistrate from office.

De Castro was also among the five justices who testfied in the impeachment proceedings against the Chief Justice in the House of the Representatives earlier this year.