Newly appointed Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario started out as a messenger and security guard and worked hard to reach one of the coveted top posts in the Judiciary.
“Justice Rosario started from humble beginnings,” the SC Public Information Office (SCPIO) said in a statement.
Fourth among 13 siblings, the SCPIO said Rosario worked his way through college and managed to graduate from the Far Eastern University (FEU) with a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Political Science.
“He once worked as a messenger for the Employees’ Compensation Commission in 1976 and then as security guard for the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel for a few months in 1977, until his promotion to a clerk position,” it said.
“Inspired by his lawyer father, Eduardo Rosario, he then took up law at the Ateneo University School of Law from 1979-1983.”
After passing the Bar in 1984, Rosario has placed his entire professional career with government service.
“He secured his first job as a lawyer in the Legal Department of the National Bureau of Investigation as Legal Officer,” the SCPIO said.
“This paved the path for his long and illustrious career as a government lawyer when he became Corporate Attorney for the Manila Waterworks and Sewerage System from 1986 to 1994,” it added.
Rosario was later appointed in March 1994 as assistant city prosecutor in Quezon City.
Afterwards, he joined the Judiciary in 1997 and was appointed as presiding judge of Manila Metropolitan Trial Court (MeTC) Branch 19 and then as presiding judge judge of Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 66.
In September 2005, Rosario was promoted as associate justice of the Court of Appeals (CA) where he became the chairman of its 9th Division.
After a number of tries, Rosario was picked by President Duterte this month to the SC as its 189th associate justice and filled the seat vacated by retired Associate Justice Jose Reyes Jr.