By Argyll Cyrus Geducos
President Duterte has named Court of Appeals Associate Justice Amy Javier as the new associate justice at the Supreme Court (SC), Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed Wednesday evening.
Javier will be replacing retired SC justice Noel Tijam who vacated his post on January 5 this year.
New Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Amy Javier (SCREENSHOT / SUPREME COURT OF THE PHILIPPINES / YOUTUBE / MANILA BULLETIN)
Javier is also the second woman that Duterte appointed to the High Court after Rosmari Carandang in November last year.
In a statement, Presidential Spokesperson Salvador Panelo said the Palace believes that Javier will uphold the integrity of the Supreme Court.
"We are confident that Associate Justice Javier, as a new guardian of the rule of law, would display a high degree of competence, integrity and independence during her stint at the Supreme Court," he said Wednesday evening.
Panelo described Javier as someone with a vast legal experience in the government which spans for more than three decades.
Javier is a magna cum laude graduate of the Philippine Normal University who obtained her law degree at the University of Santo Tomas. She began her career in public service as a trial attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG) in 1983 and later became Assistant Solicitor-General thereat in 1994.
In 2007, she was appointed to the Court of Appeals as one of its associate justices.
During her interview with the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) in June last year, Javier expressed that the President is not an enemy of women when asked about Duterte's "predilection for male appointees" as a disadvantage for her chances of getting a seat at the Supreme Court.
"I do not see the President as an enemy of women, I see him as a person who respects and loves his late mother, who he credits to have unconditionally loved him, and brought out the leader that he is," she said.
"I would like to see him as a father who cares for his daughters, a person who founded several shelters for abused women and for children who are girls who are victims of incest," she added.
Javier also disagreed that Duterte is a misogynist after the President said last year that his next appointee for the Ombudsman post would not be a woman.
"I see the President to be reasonable and I am confident that if I be accorded the honor of being nominated for the post, the President will pass upon my qualifications on the merits and not because I am a woman and not a man," she said.
Meanwhile, Javier also said she is in favor of Duterte's campaign for federalism.
"It will improve the economy and judicial system in the country. The idea is to diffuse the powers of the state to a group of self-sustaining provinces," she said.
With the appointment of Javier, Duterte now has six appointees at the Supreme Court, including Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin. Duterte is yet to name his last appointee who will take the spot vacated by Bersamin at the High Court.
Duterte's other appointees at the Supreme Court are associate justices Andres Reyes Jr,, Alexander Gesmundo, Jose Reyes Jr., and Ramon Paul Hernando.