Teresita Leonardo-de Castro
Malacañang on Sunday defended the appointment of Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro as Chief Justice from allegations that it was a reward for supporting moves to oust her predecessor, as an opposition senator warned that her elevation to the highest office in the judiciary could lead to “further damage to the country’s battered democratic institutions.”
President Duterte on Saturday chose De Castro, who is retiring in six weeks, over Supreme Court Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr. and Lucas Bersamin to replace Maria Lourdes Sereno, who was removed as Chief Justice in May over a question of integrity.
De Castro was one of five Supreme Court justices who testified against Sereno in the House of Representatives earlier this year as the allies of President Duterte sought to impeach the then Chief Justice for asserting the judiciary’s authority over judges he had linked to illegal drugs.
Sereno was the most junior justice on the Supreme Court in 2012 when she was appointed Chief Justice by then President Benigno Aquino III.
Glass ceiling
She broke the glass ceiling in the judiciary but incurred the animosity of the other justices because of the breach of the seniority tradition on the Supreme Court.
But the most senior justice at the time, Antonio Carpio, did not testify in the impeachment hearings in the House and voted against the constitutionally questionable challenge brought by Solicitor General Jose Calida to remove Sereno from office.
Carpio also did not apply for the vacancy at the top post in the judiciary left by Sereno’s ouster, saying he did not want to benefit from her removal.
De Castro applied for the job and Mr. Duterte gave it to her, although she had only six weeks left to serve on the bench.
She retires on Oct. 8, when she turns 70.
De Castro and six other justices are facing separate complaints for impeachment in the House for granting Calida’s petition instead of allowing the constitutional process to remove Sereno to proceed.
Her appointment will be formally announced on Tuesday, as Monday is a holiday.
Seniority
In a press statement on Sunday, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque called the labeling of De Castro’s appointment as a reward “senseless,” stressing that President Duterte chose De Castro because she was the most senior among the three justices nominated by the Judicial and Bar Council.
De Castro, Roque said, also has “infinitely more experience” than Sereno.
Opposition Sen. Risa Hontiveros, however, said on Sunday that De Castro might use her short term to further the agenda of Mr. Duterte, including bringing the Marcoses back to power and withdrawing the Philippines from the Rome Statute, which underpins the International Criminal Court (ICC), to evade prosecution for the killings of thousands of Filipinos in his brutal war on drugs.
“I call on the public to exercise extra vigilance in these extremely challenging times. In particular, the people should closely guard Ferdinand ‘Bongbong’ Marcos Jr.’s sham electoral protest and the case regarding the country’s withdrawal from the International Criminal Court,” Hontiveros said in a statement.
Marcos, whose family reportedly helped to bankroll Mr. Duterte’s 2016 presidential campaign, is protesting his loss to the Liberal Party’s Leni Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential election.
Robredo won the balloting by a little more than 260,000 votes.
The Supreme Court, sitting as the Presidential Electoral Tribunal, is hearing Marcos’ protest.
It is also hearing an opposition challenge to Mr. Duterte’s decision to withdraw the Philippines from the Rome Statute, which came earlier this year after ICC Chief Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda announced that she had opened a preliminary examination of the complaint for crimes against humanity that had been brought against Mr. Duterte, his first police chief, Ronald dela Rosa, and 10 other officials for the thousands of killings in his drug war.
‘Absolutely shortsighted’
Hontiveros described De Castro’s appointment as “absolutely shortsighted.”
“It fell terribly short on many fronts: short on integrity, short on vision and short on courage,” she said. “President Duterte just took the shortest and surest path to keeping the Supreme Court under his control.”
While De Castro’s term would be the shortest in the judiciary’s history, “it could also be long enough to cause further damage to our already battered democratic institutions,” Hontiveros said.
Transition Chief Justice
But former Solicitor General Florin Hilbay said De Castro may just serve as a “transition Chief Justice” as the search for the next leader of the judiciary continued during her 41 days in office.
Hilbay said the rise of De Castro did not augur well for the Supreme Court, as she actively participated in the moves to kick out Sereno.
“This reflects more on the President because he was the one who appointed De Castro as Chief Justice,” Hilbay told the Inquirer.
“Definitely it’s a reflection of the kind of vision of the President for the judiciary. Given the context and the circumstances, I think its impact on the judiciary in general will be negative because you want the appointment to be as nonpolitical as possible,” he added.
Hilbay likened President Duterte’s choice of De Castro to the “revolving door policy” of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, who appointed retired military generals and senior police officials to key posts in her administration to keep them from joining attempts to overthrow her.