{"id":178854,"date":"2018-08-28T01:15:22","date_gmt":"2018-08-28T05:15:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=178854"},"modified":"2018-08-28T01:15:22","modified_gmt":"2018-08-28T05:15:22","slug":"de-castro-take-oath-chief-justice-aug-31","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2018\/08\/28\/de-castro-take-oath-chief-justice-aug-31\/","title":{"rendered":"De Castro to take oath as Chief Justice on Aug. 31"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"<\/a>
FILE: Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro. (Photo<\/a>: Supreme Court of the Philippines<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

MANILA — Newly-appointed Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro will take her oath before President Rodrigo R. Duterte this Friday (August 31), a Malaca\u00f1ang official said Monday.<\/p>\n

Duterte\u2019s top aide, Christopher \u201cBong\u201d Go made this confirmation, noting that she was going to take her oath \u201cat the earliest time\u201d so that she can assume her official duties.<\/p>\n

\u201c(The) OP (Office of the President) has scheduled on Aug. 31 for CJ (chief justice) to visit Malaca\u00f1ang and take her ceremonial oath before PRRD,\u201d Go said in a press statement.<\/p>\n

\u201cCJ appointee Justice de Castro has communicated to OP that she will endeavor to take her oath at the earliest time as soon as SC is in receipt of her appointment paper that she may assume and enter into judicial functions and duties as CJ,\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

In a chance interview, Duterte told reporters that his basis for appointing de Castro as the new chief justice is \u201cseniority.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cSa lahat yan sa civil service, sa military, pati sa everybody, seniority and parang conveyor (In every agency, in the civil service, military, everybody, seniority and being a conveyor is the basis),\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

\u201cFirst, sino \u2018yung nauna, sya \u2018yung\u2026and it will be the same for all justices, not only de Castro. Lahat yan sila (Who came first? It will be the same for all justices, not only de Castro. All of them),\u201d he added, noting that it was a different story if the justices refused their appointment.<\/p>\n

Duterte said there should be no cutting into the line when it comes to appointments and that it should also be free from political agenda.<\/p>\n

\u201cLahat sa military ganun, walang singitan (That\u2019s the case for everything in the military, there\u2019s no cutting into the line). In the civil service, no political colors included. Bawal yan (That\u2019s not allowed). So merit system,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The President, meanwhile denied an opposition lawmaker\u2019s claim that De Castro\u2019s appointment was Duterte\u2019s reward for voting for the ouster of former chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.<\/p>\n

Magdalao Rep. Gary Alejano earlier described de Castro\u2019s appointment as \u201cbayad-utang\u201d (payment for debt).<\/p>\n

Duterte shrugged off Alejano\u2019s remark, saying he \u201chad yet to hear\u201d the lawmaker says \u201csomething without malice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not familiar<\/p>\n

He also emphasized how he was \u201cnot familiar\u201d with any of the justices shortlisted as chief justice since he was not a practitioner in Manila, having been Mayor in Davao City for over 20 years.<\/p>\n

\u201cSino \u2018yung nauna pumasok siya yung unang ma-promote (Who came in first, that\u2019s who will get promoted),\u201d he said. \u201cAnd that would go for everybody. I am not familiar with any of them actually. Wala akong kilalang justice na \u2018yung personal (I don\u2019t know any justices personally).\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cTruthfully I have never talked to anyone there. Wala akong kilala (I don\u2019t know them). They\u2019re all strangers to me. Remember na hindi naman ako practitioner ng Maynila e (Remember, I\u2019m not a practitioner in Manila),\u201d he added.<\/p>\n

Based on seniority, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, who earlier declined his nomination as chief justice, will still head the second division.<\/p>\n

Asked if Duterte considered Carpio\u2019s appointment, he said the senior associate justice has already stated publicly that he is not going to accept the position.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe stated publicly that he\u2019s not going to accept so why force the person to accept a task he does not want?\u201d Duterte said.<\/p>\n

On Saturday (Aug. 25), Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed that de Castro is the new Supreme Court Chief Justice.<\/p>\n

\u201cJustice de Castro is the new CJ. I have been informed that the President\u2019s choice has been publicly announced by SAP Bong Go and that the formal appointment will be released by Executive Secretary (Salvador) Medialdea on Tuesday,\u201d Guevarra said in a message sent to reporters.<\/p>\n

De Castro will only be serving as the country\u2019s top judge for less than two months as she will retire this year when she reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 on October 8.<\/p>\n

Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque earlier described de Castro as the \u201cbest choice\u201d for chief justice saying she had proven competence for the position.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

MANILA — Newly-appointed Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro will take her oath before President Rodrigo R. Duterte this Friday (August …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":162910,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[16,95],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-178854","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","category-news-ph","mauthors-azer-parrocha","mauthors-philippine-news-agency"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178854","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\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=178854"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/178854\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/162910"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=178854"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=178854"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=178854"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}