Court of Appeals (CA) Presiding Justice Remedios A. Salazar Fernando retires on Saturday, Sept. 2, after serving the government for 45 years both in the executive department and the judiciary.
The judiciary will hold a retirement ceremony in her honor on Friday, Sept. 1, during the CA’s full court session that starts at 2:30 p.m. Reception will be held at the at the Diamond Hotel starting at 5:30 p.m. Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo will be present in both events.
She finished her psychology degree from the College of the Holy Spirit and her law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University Law School where she was honored as among the top five graduates in 1977.
After passing the bar examinations, Presiding Justice Fernando joined the Supreme Court (SC) as a law clerk and later transferred to the Presidential Management Staff of the Office of the President.
In 1983, she was appointed judge of the municipal trial court (MTC) in Sta. Rita, Pampanga and also served as acting MTC judge of Lubao, also in Pampanga, in 1984.
After three years as trial court judge, she was appointed chairperson of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board (LTRFB) in 1987 and served as an assistant secretary of the Land Transportation Office (LTO) in a concurrent capacity in 1991.
In 1992, Presiding Justice Fernando was appointed commissioner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) and served the post until 1999.
On May 25, 1999, she returned to the judiciary as CA associate justice. After more than a year on Nov. 25, 2020, she was promoted as CA presiding justice.
Presiding Justice Fernando was born on Sept. 2, 1953 in Guagua, Pampanga to Mariano Salazar and Pelagia Austria.
She was married to the late Judge Jose Ener S. Fernando with whom she has two children -- Atty. Janina Marie S. Fernando-Lagman and Atty. John Daniel S. Fernando. She now has three grandchildren.
Presiding Justice Fernando was Bar examiner in the 2005 and 2110 examinations. She is also a member of the board of trustees and a professorial lecturer of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PhilJA), the education arm of the SC.
She is a recipient of numerous awards, among them, the Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) Award of the Gerry Roxas Foundation, the Justice George A. Malcolm Award, Commitment to Justice Annual Awards by the Rotary Club of Manila, Outstanding Performance Award by the Senate of the Philippines, and the 2008 Ulirang Ina Award for Law and Judiciary from the National Mother's Day and Father's Day Foundation, Inc.