Carpio leaves SC with zero case backlog

MANILA, Philippines — Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said he would leave a zero case backlog when he retires on Saturday after exactly 18 years on the bench.

He is the second longest serving member of the highest court in the land, next only to the country’s first Chief Justice, Cayetano Arellano, who presided over the US colonial Supreme Court for 19 years.

At his final flag ceremony on Monday, Carpio said he had written 935 court decisions and 126 separate opinions.

“It was a very long journey allowing me to write 935 full-blown decisions, 79 dissenting opinions, 30 concurring opinions, 13 separate opinions and four concurring and dissenting opinions, leaving no backlog,” he said as he bid farewell to his fellow magistrates, court officials and employees.

Carpio was appointed on Oct. 22, 2001, by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo whom he served as chief presidential legal counsel.

Among the youngest

At 52, he was one of the youngest appointees to the Supreme Court. He will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Oct. 26.

Carpio went into private practice right after obtaining his law degree from the University of the Philippines.

He cofounded the Carpio Villaraza and Cruz Law firm.

He was a professorial lecturer of the UP College of Law from 1983 until 1992 when he was appointed by former President Fidel Ramos as chief presidential legal counsel.

Carpio was part of the Philippine contingent that argued before the Permanent Court of Arbitration in The Hague and won a landmark ruling in July 2016 invalidating China’s expansive claims over the South China Sea, including the Philippines’ sovereign waters.

In May 2017, Carpio published the book, “The South China Sea Dispute: Philippine Sovereign Rights and Jurisdiction in the West Philippine Sea.”