Finish your studies and never consider poverty as obstacle in achieving your dreams, was the message of Supreme Court associate justice Cancio Castillo Garcia to the youth after his retirement last October 19.
Garcia, born on October 20, 1937 in Alitagtag, Batangas, exemplified his own life where he grew up in a poor family to illiterate parents but who had goaded him to achieve his ambition whatever the cost.
“Poverty is no obstacle when you are determined to pursue a career in life and when you are blessed with parents who could guide you and lead you to the right path… and of course, the Omnipotent, the Lord,” Garcia said as he hung his magisterial robe after 46 years of government service.
“When you are nearing retirement, your tendency is to look back to your humble beginnings,” Garcia told writer Annie Laborte of Benchmark, the quarterly publication of the Supreme Court.
Garcia recalled that during his childhood, he put black ink on his father’s thumb to mark it into his report card in every grading period from elementary to high school.
If he had no classes, the young Garcia helped his father in selling ice cream to earn a living. He narrated his hardship to his law clerks about the period of his life when he helped his father push an ice cream cart to cross a bridge in Sta. Mesa, Manila.
Garcia finished his college and Bachelor of Laws at the University of the Philippines in 1961, then obtained a post-graduate Public Administration degree as a government scholar from the University of Santo Tomas in 1967. He also took a special course at Harvard Law School in June 2000.
Garcia began his government career in 1962 first as legal assistant and later as a Junior Presidential Staff Assistant in the Office of the President’s Legal Office.
Ten years later, he was appointed Solicitor at the Office of the Solicitor General. In 1974, he was named Presiding Judge of the Caloocan City Court. He was later appointed as Regional Trial Court Judge in Angeles City, and later in Caloocan City, where, on its 41st Foundation Day, he was recognized as one of “Caloocan’s Best.”
Garcia in 1988 rejoined the Office of the President as Assistant Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs to then President Corazon C. Aquino. Two years later, she appointed him Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals. In 2003, he was promoted to Presiding Justice of the CA.
Justice Garcia’s dedication to the highest ideals in the government paid off when, on October 6, 2004, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed him as magistrate of the highest court of the land. He took his oath of office on October 15, a few minutes after the inauguration of the CA Cebu City Station.
An Ulirang Ama Sectoral Awardee 2002 for Law and Judiciary, Justice Garcia is married to the former Emeteria L. Reyes, and they are blessed with four children. Justice Garcia is also a recipient of the Parangal ng Bayan Award in Law and Judiciary. — Rene U. Borromeo/RAE