CA associate justice Carandang named the new High Court associate justice
By Moira Encina
Eagle News Service
Supreme Court Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin is the new Chief Justice.
President Rodrigo Duterte handpicked Bersamin from a Judicial and Bar Council shortlist that included Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, and Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, and Andres Reyes Jr.
Although Carpio, 68, is the most senior magistrate in the High Court, the 69-year-old Bersamin is the most senior SC justice in the judiciary, starting out as a judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 96 in November 1986.
Bersamin was a recipient of the Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos Award as Outstanding RTC Judge in 2002, and was acknowledged by the Chief Justice Fred Ruzi Castro Memorabilia Commission for having the Best Decision in Civil Law and the Best Decision in Criminal Law from among all RTC judges in 1999.
Prior to his appointment at the SC by then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo, Bersamin was a Court of Appeals associate justice since 2003.
Bersamin, whose brother, former Rep. Luis Bersamin was killed outside a church in Quezon City in 2006, voted in favor of the burial of then-President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani in Taguig, Maria Lourdes Sereno’s ouster as Chief Justice, among others.
He is slated to receive the Gusi Peace International Award.
Bersamin replaces Teresita Leonardo De Castro, who retired as Chief Justice after reaching the mandatory age of retirement in October.
Bersamin will reach the mandatory age of retirement of 70 in October 2019.
New SC associate justice
In a related development, Duterte appointed Court of Appeals Associate Justice Rosmarie Carandang as the new Associate Justice of the SC.
Carandang is the third most senior justice of the CA.
