(Eagle News) – President Rodrigo Duterte has chosen Court of Appeals Justice Priscilla Baltazar-Padilla as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court to fill in the post vacated by Supreme Court Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr., who retired last May.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque made the announcement on Thursday, July 16, in a brief statement.
“This is to announce that Court of Appeals Justice Priscilla J. Baltazar-Padilla has been appointed as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, he said.
Padilla is the 188th Supreme Court Associate Justice.
The other nominees to the post were Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, and other Court of Appeals Justices Ricardo Rosario, Japar Dimaampao, Jhosep Lopez, Ramon Cruz and Manuel Barrios.
Padilla, 62, was included in the list of seven nominees submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council last June 8 to the Office of the President.
She is a law graduate Lyceum of the Philippines, and was top 5 in the 1984 Bar Examinations.
She has previously taught law at the Lyceum of the Philippines and at New Era University.
She is the third female Associate justice appointed by President Duterte to the 15-member high tribunal. The others are Associate Justices Rosmari Carandang and Amy Lazaro-Javier.
There are currently four female members of the Supreme Court, the most senior of whom is Senior Associate Justice Estela Perlas Bernabe who was appointed by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2011.
(Eagle News Service)
