Former SC Justice Quiason dies

MANILA, Philippines–Retired Supreme Court Justice Camilo Quiason, who served in the high tribunal during the Ramos administration, died early Sunday. He was 89.

His remains will lie in state at Christ the King Church, Greenmeadows, Quezon City, until 9 a.m. on Thursday. Interment details will be announced later.

Quiason served as a Supreme Court justice from Feb. 1, 1993, to July 17, 1995. He was appointed by Ramos to replace Justice Leo Medialdea who died in office in November 1992.

Born on July 18, 1925, Quiason obtained his law degree from the University of the Philippines in 1950 and his Master’s degree from the same university in 1956. He trained at the Southwest Legal Center and was a fellow at the Academy of American and International Law, both in Dallas, Texas.

In 1974, he cofounded the Quiason Makalintal Barot Torres Ibarra and Sison Law Firm and served as senior partner until 1993, specializing in litigation, corporate law, arbitration and energy law. He rejoined the law firm after his stint in the Supreme Court.

According to the law firm’s website, Quiason was vice president and general counsel of Meralco Securities Corp. from 1972 to 1973 prior to his founding of the law firm. From the late 1950s to the mid-1960s, he served as a solicitor in the Office of the Solicitor General, a Manila judge and special prosecutor at the Department of Justice.

During the Aquino administration, he served as special counsel to the Presidential Commission on Good Government and the OSG, helping in the recovery of the ill-gotten wealth from the dictator Ferdinand Marcos and his cronies.

His law firm handled cases in 1998 and 2001 that resulted in the Supreme Court declaring unconstitutional laws that prohibited day-of-election surveys and banned the publication of election survey results.

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines website lists Quiason as a member of the committee that drafted the Code of Professional Responsibility for Lawyers.

In 2000, he became a member of a special study group formed by the Supreme Court to propose reforms in the bar exams.

Also in 2000, the National Historical Commission of the Philippines tapped Quiason to chair a panel that ruled that Surigao City, and not Cagayan de Oro or Butuan cities, was the site of the first raising of the Philippine flag in Mindanao on Dec. 26, 1898.