President Arroyo has appointed Amelita Tolentino, her townmate from Lubao, Pampanga, to the CA, along with former Quezon City Judge Mariano del Castillo, who was a former student of Justice Secretary Hernando Perez at the Ateneo College of Law.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Avelino Cruz informed Chief Justice Hilario Davide last Monday of the new appointments.
Tolentino and Del Castillo, who were nominated by the Judicial and Bar Council last May 30, were chosen from among 16 contenders whose names were submitted to Mrs. Arroyo on June 4.
The 57-year-old Tolentino, who has remained single, graduated valedictorian from the Lyceum of the Phi-lippines College of Law in 1968. She graduated with a Political Science degree four years earlier.
Tolentino also graduated valedictorian in grade school in Floridablanca, Pampanga in 1956, and in high school from the Lubao Institute in 1960.
Del Castillo, 52, whose wife Cynthia is dean of the Ateneo College of Law, received his Bachelor of Laws degree from the same university in 1976. He completed his Bachelor of Arts in Political Science course in 1971, also at Ateneo.
Before his CA appointment, Del Castillo was judge of the San Mateo, Rizal Municipal Trial Court, from 1989 to 1992; judge of the Angeles City Regional Trial Court, from 1992 to 1995; and judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court.
Tolentino convicted Hubert Webb and six other young men for the June 1991 murders of Estrellita Vizconde and her daughters, 18-year-old Carmela and seven-year-old Anne Marie Jennifer.
Webb, Hospicio "Pyke" Fernandez, Miguel "Ging" Rodriguez, Peter Estrada, Antonio "Tony Boy" Lejano III, Michael Gatchalian and former policeman Gerardo Biong are serving their terms at the National Penitentiary in Muntinlupa City.
Their cases are still being reviewed by the Supreme Court. – Delon Porcalla