MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has appointed Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Disodado Peralta as Supreme Court associate justice, Malacañang announced on Wednesday.
Peralta replaced Ruben Reyes, who retired last January 3 when he turned 70 years old.
He is the second former member of the Sandiganbayan Special Division to be named to the high court, after Justice Teresita de Castro. The anti-graft court convicted former president Joseph Estrada of plunder in September 2007.
Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita announced Peralta's appointment and was quick to dispel criticism that Arroyo was tightening her grip on the high court to ensure a favorable decision when legal questions on efforts to amend the Constitution would be brought before the tribunal.
"If you make an inventory of the decisions of the Supreme Court, it does not follow that just because majority of them were appointed by President Arroyo, the cases where the administration has interest has not been favored necessarily by the appointees of the President," Ermita said.
Ermita said Arroyo had deemed Peralta to be "very, very qualified" for the job.
The President's allies at the House of Representatives are pushing for amendments to the 1987 Constitution through a constituent assembly by seeking a consensus of two-thirds of the combined membership of the House and the Senate.
But senators insist that the consensus of both chambers should be taken separately.
While the President's allies claim that they will only amend economic provisions in the Charter, her critics see this as a ploy to allow her to stay in power beyond the end of her term in 2010.
Peralta started as a production analyst of Cosmos Bottling Corporation in 1974 before working as general manager of Ace-Agri Development Corporation, according to his profile released to media.
In 1981, Peralta became legal consultant of the Metro Manila Commission and then served as councilman of Fairview, Quezon City.
The son of former Manila Court of First Instance (now regional trial court) Judge Elviro was also reportedly a friend of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, father of incumbent Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.
Peralta was appointed to the Tax Deficiency of the City of Manila that looked into the tax fraud cases against former First Lady Imelda Marcos, and later became part of the Joint Legal Action Group of the Departments of National Defense, Justice and Interior and Local Government.
In 1994, Peralta was appointed regional trial court judge in Quezon City and Executive Judge in 2000. During his stint as lower court judge, he became known as a "hanging judge" with a 90 percent conviction rate in his sala. He became a Sandiganbayan justice in 2002.
Peralta was one of three justices who convicted former president Joseph Estrada for plunder. The chairperson of the Sandiganbayan Special Division that heard the Estrada case, Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo De Castro, has been appointed to the Supreme Court.
Peralta is married to Court of Appeals Associate Justice Fernanda Lampas-Peralta.
Justice Peralta is an alumnus of the University of Santo Tomas where he finished his Bachelor of Laws in 1979. He was also a Professor, Reviewer and Lecturer in Criminal Law in UST.
