SC justice opts for early retirement due to ‘deteriorating health’
Supreme Court Associate Justice Martin Villarama. Photo from sc.judiciary.gov.ph
Supreme Court Associate Justice Martin Villarama has asked the Supreme Court to allow him to optionally retire effective Jan. 16, 2016 due to deteriorating health.
“The undersigned most earnestly requests your good office for the approval by the Supreme Court en banc of his application for Optional Retirement,” Villarama said in a letter dated Nov. 2, 2015 addressed to Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, copies of which were furnished to other Supreme Court justices.
“This request is being made for reason of the undersigned’s deteriorating health condition,” Villarama said.
His condition was brought about by his double-knee metal implantation in 2013 and his cataract operation in 2014.
“For several years, he has been experiencing difficulty in breathing, hypertension and symptoms (of) prostate illness prevalent among aging men,” the letter stated.
Villarama will turn 70—the mandatory retirement age for members of the judiciary—on April 14, 2016.
He started his career in the Judiciary in 1970 as a Supreme Court Technical Assistant. He rose from the ranks to become a Regional Trial Court Judge in 1986, then a Court of Appeals Associate Justice in 1998 and a Supreme Court Associate Justice in 2009. IDL
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