{"id":178666,"date":"2018-08-27T02:14:48","date_gmt":"2018-08-27T06:14:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=178666"},"modified":"2018-08-27T02:14:48","modified_gmt":"2018-08-27T06:14:48","slug":"duterte-defends-appointment-de-castro-cj","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/27\/duterte-defends-appointment-de-castro-cj\/","title":{"rendered":"Duterte defends appointment of de Castro as CJ"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cWhoever comes first, she will be the first to get the promotion,\u201d Duterte said in a media interview after leading the commemorative rites honoring the national heroes at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City. (PNA photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA<\/strong>\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday defended his decision to appoint Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro as new Chief Justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cKung sino yun nauna na pumasok, s\u2019ya yun unang ma-promote and that would go for everybody<\/em>\u00a0(Whoever comes first, she will be the first to get the promotion),\u201d Duterte said in a media interview after leading the commemorative rites honoring the national heroes at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig City.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd it will be the same for all justices, not only de Castro. Lahat \u2018yan sila (all of them). Unless of course, they refuse or maybe they would opt to retire. It\u2019s the same in the military,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Duterte, former mayor of Davao City for 23 years before his overwhelming victory in the 2016 presidential polls, explained that he personally does not know de Castro.<\/p>\n

“I\u2019m not familiar with any of them actually.\u00a0Wala ako kalilala na justice na personal<\/em>\u00a0(I don\u2019t know personally any justice. Truthfully, I have never talked to anyone there. They are all strangers to me. Remember,\u00a0hindi naman ako practitioner ng Manila<\/em>\u00a0(I\u2019m not a practitioner in Manila),\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

When asked to comment on opposition lawmaker Rep. Gary Alejano\u2019s remark that the appointment was a “reward” to de Castro, Duterte said: \u201cI have yet to hear those guys state something without malice\u201d.<\/p>\n

“They always say the worst\u2026 People,\u00a0kagaya nila<\/em>\u00a0(like them), just best when they condemn. And they have nothing to show for their time there except to blabber their mouth,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Department of Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed over the weekend that Duterte has appointed de Castro to replace ousted Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.<\/p>\n

Guevarra said Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea will release the formal appointment of de Castro on Tuesday.<\/p>\n

De Castro was appointed as SC justice in December 2007 by former President and now House Speaker Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.<\/p>\n

She bested the two other nominees from the SC — Justices Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin.<\/p>\n

Duterte explained he did not appoint Associate Justice and Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio because the latter turned down the automatic nomination.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe stated in public that he is not going to accept it. So why force a person to accept a task that he does not want. This is a free country,\u201d Duterte told the media.<\/p>\n

Last Sunday, Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said Duterte has upheld \u201cjudicial professionalism\u201d by appointing most senior aspirants.<\/p>\n

Roque also said de Castro had \u201cinfinitely more experience than the ex-CJ\u201d.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA\u00a0— President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday defended his decision to appoint Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":33,"featured_media":178670,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1145,16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headline","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-jelly-musico","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/33"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178666"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178666\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/178670"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}