President Duterte has appointed Quezon City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Judge Arthur Oliveros Malabaguio as associate justice of the Sandiganbayan, the country’ anti-graft court.
Malabaguio took over the post vacated in 2020 with the death of Associate Justice Reynaldo P. Cruz.
His appointment was relayed last Thursday, March 3, to Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo by Executive Secretary Salvador C. Medialdea.
Before his Sandiganbayan appointment, which is a promotion, Malabaguio handled Branch 93, a commercial court in Quezon City.
The President has appointed 76 trial court judges since last February.
Also last February, the President appointed retired Commission on Elections Commissioner Antonio T. Kho Jr. as SC associate justice. He took over the post vacated last Jan. 9 by retired Associate Justice Rosmari D. Carandang who has been appointed by the SC as chancellor of the Philippine Judicial Academy, the judiciary’s education arm.
Last January, the President appointed five associate justices of the Court of Appeals.
Appointed were Associate Justices Ana Marie Train Mas, Maximo M. De Leon, Jacinto Gavino Fajardo Jr., Jennifer Joy Chua Ong, and Michael P. Ong.
Mas, De Leon, and Fajardo were former RTC judges, while Chua Ong and Ong were executives at the Office of the President.