Who was Judge Abadilla?

Judge Maria Teresa Abadilla. PHOTO/Portia Sorority

MANILA, Philippines— Who was Judge Maria Teresa Abadilla, the Regional Trial Court  Judge from Manila who was shot and killed by her clerk of court?

For Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta, Abadilla was a big loss to the Judiciary.

“I personally know her to be an upright and highly competent magistrate,” he said in a statement adding that he knew the judge and her family because they came from the same province of Ilocos Norte.

“I offer my sincerest condolences to the mother, Manang Susan Samonte Abadilla, and the siblings of Judge Abadilla and all her friends,” he said.

Abadilla, daughter of the late Col. Rolando Abadilla, an intelligence officer during the Marcos administration, worked her way up the ladder, starting as a law clerk in the Supreme Court for more than a decade. She has worked in the offices of retired chief justices Lucas Bersamin and Teresita Leonardo-De Castro.

“I am much saddened by the tragic killing of Judge Teresa S. Abadilla right in her workplace. She was like family to me and my wife. She was a hardworking judge. Her death, which was senseless, diminishes us all. I condole with the Abadilla family, and we pray that their profound grief over the tragedy be tempered by the thought that we share their irreparable loss,” Bersamin said in a statement.

Peralta said that while there are security protocols already in place in all courthouses, “I have directed the Court Administrator to employ stricter measures to prevent incidents like these from happening again.” [ac]