Supreme Court spokesman appointed as new court administrator

MANILA, Philippines - The Supreme Court (SC) has appointed its spokesperson lawyer Jose Midas Marquez as its new court administrator.

Marquez was unanimously chosen by SC justices from a list of nine candidates. He takes the place of former court administrator Jose Perez, who was appointed as associate justice last month by President Arroyo.

He took his oath of office before Chief Justice Reynato Puno yesterday morning. At 43, he is the youngest to be appointed to the post.

Marquez said he did not expect the appointment and was planning to retire along with Puno.

“However, the opportunity presented itself and my friends and court employees convinced me to apply. I thank the justices for this affirmation of my hard work, commitment, dedication and loyalty to the institution that I have been serving for the past two decades,” he said.

As court administrator — a position in the same level as a presiding justice of the Court of Appeals (CA) — Marquez is tasked to oversee programs in the judiciary, including the decentralization of court management and measures to depoliticize ties between judges and local government officials.

He said the appointment is a “bigger challenge” because he would be dealing with problems facing the judiciary, especially the lower courts.

He will handle the concerns of 2,000 judges and 27,000 court personnel of lower courts nationwide.

“I am tasked to make sure the lower courts are functioning properly,” he explained.

The position also gives Marquez an opportunity to be appointed as a justice in the future, like his predecessor. Aside from Perez, associate justice Presbitero Velasco also served as court administrator before he was appointed in 2006.

The other nominees to the post were: deputy court administrator Nimfa Vilches, deputy clerk of court and chief attorney Edna Dino, CA Justices Francisco Acosta and Apolinario Bruselas, and trial court Judges Andres Soriano and Edwin Villasor.

Two persons from the private sector who also applied for the position are Petron Corp. vice president Jose Laurel and lawyer–accountant Epifania Navarro–Mendoza.

Curriculum Vitae

Marquez started his career in the SC in 1991 as a law clerk for several justices, among whom were retired justice Abraham Sarmiento, Senior Justice and former Philippine Judicial Academy chancellor Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, and Senior Justice Josue Bellosillo.

He next became deputy secretary of the Senate Electoral

Tribunal, detailed at the Office of the Chairman of then Senior Justices Bellosillo in 1999 and Puno in 2003.

He also took the post of director of the Supreme Court-United Nations Development Program Project on Technical Assistance to the Philippine Judiciary from 1998 to 2000.

He took other positions in the High Court before he was appointed as the chief of staff of the Office of Chief Justice Puno, and eventually the SC’s second spokesperson and chief of public information office in 2007.

Marquez finished his Juris Doctor degree in 1993 at the Ateneo de Manila University where he also obtained his undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Arts, major in Economics in 1987.