Aquino appoints new Sandiganbayan presiding justice

NEW ANTI-GRAFT COURT HEAD Newly appointed Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang (left) is shown in this file photo while being sworn in as associate justice of the anti-graft court last year by Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—After the Supreme Court, President Benigno Aquino III has appointed another junior justice to the post of Presiding Justice of the Sandiganbayan.

The President appointed Associate Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang as the new anti-graft court head following the mandatory retirement of Associate Justice Francisco Villaruz last June 8. Aquino signed Tang’s appointment papers on Thursday.

Tang, former assistant solicitor-general, was appointed as Sandiganbayan Associate Justice only last year.

While assistant solicitor general, Tang defended the government before the Sandiganbayan to stop the plea bargain deal between the Office of the Ombudsman and former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.

At the Office of the Solicitor General, she held the positions of trial attorney and solicitor from 1982 to 1994, and of Assistant Solicitor General from 1994 onwards. She also worked in the Insurance Commission from 1979 to 1980 as a clerk, and for the Supreme Court from 1980 to 1982 as a legal assistant.

She graduated from Manuel L. Quezon University in 1975 with a degree in Political Science, and from San Beda College of Law in 1979 with a Bachelor of Laws degree. She was admitted to the Philippine Bar in 1980

With her latest appointment, Tang bypassed the more senior justices vying for the same position—Court of Appeals Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas, Sandiganbayan Justices Efren Dela Cruz, Teresita Diaz-Baldos, and Alex Quiroz, and acting Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Gregory Ong.

In August of 2010, Aquino also appointed then Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno as the Supreme Court Chief Justice, filling up the void left by the impeachment and eventual conviction of former Chief Justice Renato Corona. Sereno was among the junior high court magistrates  when named to the high tribunal post.