By Rey Panaligan
Chief Justice Teresita J. Leonardo de Castro assumed on Tuesday her new post as head of the judiciary and vowed to preserve judicial independence, maintain collegiality with fellow justices, and expedite the resolution of cases from the trial courts up to the Supreme Court (SC).
Newly appointed Supreme Court Chief Justice Teresita De Castro answers questions from reporters during her first press briefing as a chief magistrate Tuesday. (ALI VICOY / MANILA BULLETIN)
De Castro was appointed by President Duterte last Saturday and the appointment paper was forwarded to the SC Tuesday. She took her oath of office before Senior Justice Antonio T. Carpio in the presence of all the SC justices during Tuesday’s full court session.
She presided over the full court session and the oral arguments on two petitions that challenged the constitutionality of President Duterte’s notice of withdrawal of the Philippines’ membership in the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
In a meeting with journalists covering the SC, Chief Justice De Castro said she has no time for the impeachment complaint filed against her and six other justices for voting to unseat Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno as Chief Justice last May.
De Castro will be Chief Justice for 41 days from August 28 up to Oct. 8, 2018 when she turns 70, the compulsory retirement age for members of the judiciary.
“I have no time to think about it (impeachment complaint) … I have very few weeks to work here in the court, and I don’t want to be distracted by anything else. My schedule is full. I have so many activities set in the coming weeks. I do not wish to be distracted by that,” she stressed.
On judicial independence, De Castro said: “I won’t have any problem maintaining the independence of the judiciary.”
“I’d like to inform everyone that up to this time, I have not met the President. I have not seen him. I have not approached him, whether directly or through anybody.
So he appointed me without knowing me personally. I don’t think the President will do anything that will impair the independence of the judiciary” she said.
De Castro then thanked the President “for his strong political will, to see to it that the merit system, which is the hallmark of public appointment in public service, is followed, and in upholding the time-honored tradition of seniority in the Supreme Court.”
She explained that seniority is important “because one who is senior will have vast experience as to the workings of the Court, and it is expected that the senior members of the court will have the respect of the rest of the members of the Court.”
She debunked claims by some sectors that her appointment was a reward for voting in favor of Sereno’s ouster.
“I think they should look at my record. I’ve been in government for 45 years now and by the time I retire, I would have served 45 years and eight months in government. I worked in the SC for five years as a young lawyer. I transferred to the Department of Justice where I worked for 19 years. I was promoted to the Sandiganbayan in 1997 and became its presiding justice in 2004. So I served for 10 years in the Sandiganbayan and occupied the highest position there.
“And after that, I was promoted to the Supreme Court. I’ve been working here since 2007. So I think people should just look at my track record, my long service in the judiciary. I don’t think that one incident (Sereno ouster) would have been enough for me to be elevated to the highest position of the judiciary.”
She told her critics: “We should all move on and work together for the good of our judiciary. Let’s put the past behind us. But, of course, we should not forget the lessons that we learned in the history of the judiciary.”
She pointed out that SC justices do not begin their work when he or she becomes Chief Justice.
“We should work as early as the time that we are first appointed to the court and that was what I did. So whatever legacy I may leave behind when I retire is not the product of two months or weeks. I’ve been working on this for many years already,” she said.
The position of Chief Justice was beyond her imagination, she said: “I was already working on many projects which I want to be done when I retire not as Chief Justice but as an associate justice. I am very happy that I did that because I will just have to continue these projects that I have started way before, years before my retirement in October.”
Citing an example, she said she has been the chairperson of the SC committee on family courts and juvenile concerns since 2014. She said:
“I started working as early as September 2014 to find out what is wrong. Why don’t we have regular family courts since 1997. Our family courts are regional trial courts designated as family courts, although family courts were already created in 1997.
“So I worked vigorously to see to it that family courts are funded by Congress and true enough, in 2015, we were able to convince Congress to fund family courts beginning 2016. So what we did was to see to it that we recommend the organization of the family courts in batches because it is physically impossible to do all of this throughout the country at one time.
“So we decided to do it by batch, we were successful in 2016. Congress funded 48 family courts, the genuine family courts as created by law. In 2017, we were able to secure funding for additional 50 family courts, and in 2018, we have another batch of family courts and another batch in 2019, consisting of 50 family courts.
“So as you see, I will not be working only for two months. I’ve been working for years since 2009 for the computerization of the judiciary, for the organization of regular family courts, and also for the reforms in the rules.
“These are Supreme Court rules pertaining to family cases and cases involving children in conflict with the law. I cannot mention any more here because there are so many of them. My committee on family courts was able to secure so many reforms with respect to the processes followed by the family courts, and with respect to rules applicable to children in conflict of the law.”
She also said she has worked vigorously as head of the management committee on judicial reforms support project (JRSPP and on the judiciary-wide enterprise information system plan (EISP).
Projects on JRSPP and EISP are all designed to enhance the efficiency of the judiciary, particularly on the expeditious resolution of cases from the trial courts to the SC
Asked how the De Castro Court would like to be remembered, she said:“I want the de Castro court to be remembered as the court that restored collegiality in the Supreme Court, the court which was able to institute several reforms in the judicial processes. And I think we can do that, in such a way that the processes in the judiciary become more expeditious, less costly, and more accessible to the general public.”
Meanwhile, Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon urged Leonardo-De Castro to refrain from participating in all pending politicallycharged cases at the Supreme Court to eliminate any doubts and conjectures that her appointment was a mere “reward” for her role in the former high court chief Maria Lourdes Sereno’s ouster.
“All questions, issues, and doubts surrounding the appointment of Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo de Castro, particularly with regard to her impartiality, can only be addressed if the newly-appointed chief magistrate refrains from participating in any political case pending before the court,” Drilon said in a statement.
“I encourage her to inhibit from politically charged cases in order to uphold the integrity of the decision that the Supreme Court may make during her short tenure,” the minority chief said. (With a report from Hannah Torregoza)