Retired SC Justice Carolina C. Griño-Aquino, 89

INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Carolina C. Griño-Aquino passed away at around 3 a.m. Monday after a lingering illness, her daughter Carmen “Menchu” Aquino-Sarmiento announced.

She was 89.

Griño-Aquino’s wake will be held at her home at 59 D. Tuason, Sta. Mesa Heights, Quezon City. Interment date is on December 29. Further details will be announced later.

Born on October 22, 1923, Justice Griño-Aquino served in the Supreme Court from February 2, 1988 to October 22, 1993 after her husband Chief Justice Ramon C. Aquino had left the Court. The Aquinos had four children: Edna, Sonia, Carmen, and Manuel.

An appointee of President Corazon Cojuangco Aquino, she was the fourth woman named to the Supreme Court after Justices Cecilia Muñoz-Palma, Ameurfina A. Melencio Herrera, and Irene R. Cortes. Prior to her appointment to the highest court in the land, she was Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals (CA).

Justice Griño-Aquino topped the 1950 Bar Exams with a grade of 92.02%. Previously, she obtained her Liberal arts degree magna cum laude from the Colegio de San Agustin in Iloilo and her law degree from the University of the Philippines.

After her retirement from the Court, she served as the first Chairperson of the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Committee. The Supreme Court had also designated her to conduct several administrative investigations, including the Bar Exam leakage in 2003 and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines elections in 2009.