The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) on Tuesday, Nov. 16, lauded the appointment of Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez as associate justice of the Supreme Court (SC).

In a statement, IBP President Burt M. Estrada said Marquez’s appointment “is an acknowledgment of his long-standing service to the Supreme Court....”

Marquez was appointed by President Duterte as replacement to Associate Justice Edgardo L. Delos Santos who retired last June 30. His appointment completed the 15 memberships in the SC, the highest court of the land.

His appointment papers were transmitted to Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo on Nov. 16 by Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea.

At 3 p.m. on Nov. 16, Marquez took his oath of office before Gesmundo and assumed his new post in the judiciary.

Marquez is expected to serve the SC until 2036 when he reaches age 70, the retirement age for members of the judiciary.

He passed the bar examinations in 1994. He obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics in 1987 and his Juris Doctor degree in 1993, both from the Ateneo de Manila University.

He started his career in the SC as an apprentice and did legal research. He then became a regular law clerk and served several justices, among them then Chief Justices Reynato S. Puno and Renato Corona, Senior Associate Justice Josue N. Bellosillo and Associate Justices Abraham Sarmiento and Ameurfina Melencio Herrera.

He was appointed as the 14th court administrator in 2010. As court administrator, he also served as SC spokesman and head of the public information office (PIO).

He is a law professor. He is in the faculty of the Centro Escolar University’s School of Law and Jurisprudence. He is also an author and editor of law books.

In January 2022, there would be a vacancy in the SC when Associate Justice Rosmari D. Carandang retires. The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) -- the constitutional offices that accepts, screens, and nominates appointments to the judiciary – had opened the application and nomination to the post.