MANILA – Her track record makes her deserving to be the top magistrate of the Supreme Court, newly appointed Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro said.
De Castro, who retires in October, started her about-a-monthlong service as top judge when she took her oath before the Supreme Court en banc at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday.
Responding to suspicion that her appointment was a reward for her role in the removal of Maria Lourdes Sereno as chief justice, de Castro told the press: “I don’t think my appointment is a reward. I think they (critics) should look at my record. I have been in government for 45 years now.”
“Whatever legacy I may leave behind when I retire is not a product of two months,” de Castro stressed in a news conference that followed her oath-taking.
She said she will make the most of her term as chief justice and not dwell on other issues, including the impeachment complaint filed against her and six other associate justices who voted to remove Sereno.
“I want the de Castro court to be remembered as the court that restored collegiality in the Supreme Court,” de Castro said. “My schedule is currently full so I do not want to dwell on other issues.”
De Castro reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Oct. 8.
By that time the next five senior justices – Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Antonio Carpio, Mariano del Castillo, and Estela Perlas Bernabe will automatically be nominated as her replacement.
Peralta and Bersamin were nominated alongside de Castro but President Rodrigo Duterte chose the female magistrate.
De Castro has been with the Supreme Court since 2007 when she was appointed by then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Prior to that, she has worked at the Department of Justice and the Sandiganbayan./PN
