President Duterte has appointed Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Maria Filomena D. Singh as Supreme Court (SC) associate justice.
Justice Singh was scheduled to take her oath of office at about 5 p.m. on Wednesday, May 18, before Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo at the SC’s session hall.
She took over the post vacated last May 14 with the retirement of Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas Bernabe. She completed the membership in the 15-justice SC.
Like Justice Bernabe, Justice Singh was also a metropolitan trial court and regional trial court judge before her promotion to the CA in 2014.
Justice Singh’s bio-data obtained from the SC’s public information office (PIO) stated that she got her pre-law degree at the University of the Philippines and graduated cum laude. She earned her juris doctor degree from the Ateneo de Manila University with second honors distinction.
She then studied at the Washington College of Law of the American University in Washington, DC, United States for a master of laws in International Legal Studies.
She engaged in the practice of law for 10 years before joining the judiciary in 2002. In 2007, she received the “Don Antonio Madrigal Award” from the SC’s Society for Judicial Excellence.
Justice Singh was a Hubert Humphrey Fellow on Court Management and Judicial Education of the US Department of State from 2009 to 2010 when she worked with the World Bank’ International Reform Sector on judicial reform projects in Europe and Central Asia.
She was the first Philippine Judicial Fellow of the Federal Judicial Center in Washington, DC, the educational arm of the US Supreme Court.
She is a member of the Philippine Judicial Academy’s (PhilJa), the education arm of the SC, Department of Civil Law and Committee on Curriculum Review.
At the Ateneo Law School, Justice Singh is the vice chairperson of the Department of Thesis and Legal Writing and a Pre-Bar reviewer of Legal and Judicial Ethics.
She is a professor at the UP College of Law.
Justice Singh is the last appointee to the SC by President Duterte whose term ends at noon of June 30.
Aside from Singh, the Duterte-appointed incumbent members of the SC are Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo and Associate Justices Ramon Paul L. Hernando, Amy C. Lazaro Javier, Henri Jean Paul B. Inting, Rodil V. Zalameda, Mario V. Lopez, Samuel H. Gaerlan, Ricardo R. Rosario, Jhosep Y. Lopez, Japar B. Dimaampao, Jose Midas P. Marquez, and Antonio T. Kho Jr.
The two other SC incumbent members –Associate Justices Marvic M.V.F. Leonen and Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa – were appointees of the late President Benigno S. Aquino III.
There will be no mandatory vacancy in the SC in the next three years. Of the incumbent members, Justice Mario V. Lopez will retire in June 2025 while Chief Justice Gesmundo and Justice Javier will retire both in November 2026.