(Eagle News) –The Supreme Court announced its new Chief Justice, Associate Justice Diosdado M. Peralta, after he was chosen for the top post by President Rodrigo Duterte.
Malacanang forwarded Peralta’s appointment papers signed by President Duterte to the Supreme Court on Wednesday, Oct. 23, along with the directive from Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to Acting Supreme Court Chief Justice Antonio Carpio to immediately “notify and furnish” Peralta with his appointment paper.
Peralta becomes the 26th Chief Justice of the Supreme Court after Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin who retired on Oct. 18.
Peralta was appointed as 162nd Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on January 13, 2009
He is also the third Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice to be appointed to the High Tribunal.
Chief Justice Peralta got all seven votes of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), according to a Supreme Court release.
He will be sitting as the chief magistrate until he mandatorily retires at the age of 70 on March 27, 2022.
“With two and a half decades of judicial service to his credit, Chief Justice Peralta is the most senior in terms of the number of years of service in the Judiciary,” a statement from the high court said.
Before this, Peralta was the Chairperson of the SC’s Third Division. He is also the most senior among the associate justices who applied for the top SC post in terms of tenure in the High Court.
Peralta has been the Chairperson of the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) since August 2018 where he began as member in 2011.
He is also the Chairperson of the SC Committee on the Revision of the Rules of Court, the committee dubbed as the mother of all committees by his predecessor, retired Chief Justice Bersamin.
Chief Justice Peralta also served as the Chairperson of both the 2014 Bar Examinations and the Special Shari’ah Bar Examinations.
Born in Laoag City, Ilocos Norte, Chief Justice Peralta started his career in government service in 1987 when he was appointed Third Assistant City Fiscal of Laoag City. He was assigned to the Prosecutor’s Office in the City of Manila in 1988 and later became the Assistant Chief of the Investigation Division of the Office of the City Prosecutor in the early part of 1994.
He joined the Judiciary in September 1994 when he was appointed as Presiding Judge of Branch 95 of the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Quezon City, which was designated as a Special Criminal Court on Heinous Crimes and, later, Drugs Cases. He was promoted to the Sandiganbayan in 2002, and became its Presiding Justice in 2008.
Justice Peralta is married to Court of Appeals Associate Justice Fernanda C. Lampas-Peralta, a certified public accountant-lawyer, with whom he has four children: Attorney Dorothy, John Christopher, Timothy John, and John Isaac, who are all accomplished musicians.
