De Castro nominated as ombudsman

MANILA, Philippines — Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro has been nominated to replace Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, who is set to end her tenure in July.

De Castro, set to retire from the Supreme Court (SC) this October, was nominated by retired associate justice Arturo Brion in a letter to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) on May 3.

Brion cited De Castro’s record in her 45-year career in government as basis for the nomination.

“Through all these years, she has served the government with competence, probity and integrity,” Brion stressed in his two-page letter.

“Her long years in the prosecutorial service (almost 19 years) and in the Sandiganbayan (more than 10 years), not to mention her more than a decade of experience as an associate justice of the Supreme Court qualify her for the position of Ombudsman,” he added.

De Castro has not yet accepted the nomination, which is necessary for her to be considered by the JBC for the post.

Prior to her appointment in the SC in December 2007, De Castro served as presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan and chaired the special division of the anti-graft court that convicted former president Joseph Estrada of plunder in 2007.

She was elected president of the International Association of Women Judges and served a term from 2012 to 2014.

De Castro is a product of University of the Philippines College of Law. She joined the government in 1973 as law clerk and legal assistant in the SC. She then moved to the Department of Justice as a state counsel from 1978 to 1995 before her appointment to the Sandiganbayan.

As proof of De Castro’s competence and integrity, Brion cited the numerous awards received by the retiring justice, including the Presidential Medal of Merit in 1998 for her service as one of the peace negotiators during the terms of the late former president Corazon Aquino and former president Fidel Ramos, and the Chief Justice Hilario Davide Reform Award for the reforms she implementated in the Sandiganbayan.

De Castro grabbed headlines last month over her shouting match with Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno during the tension-filled oral arguments on the quo warranto case against the embattled chief magistrate in Baguio City.

De Castro was also among the five justices who testified in the impeachment hearings against Sereno in the House of Representatives earlier this year.

A private citizen, Jocelyn Marie Acosta, recently asked Solicitor General Jose Calida to also initiate quo warranto petition against De Castro before the SC based on the same grounds used against Sereno, particularly the alleged failure to file statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN).

Acosta stressed that De Castro should be removed from her post for submitting only 15 SALNs when she has been in government service since 1973.

But Calida rejected the request, citing lack of basis and evidence.

The JBC, the seven-member constitutional body tasked to screen nominees for positions in the judiciary and the Office of the Ombudsman, has extended the deadline for application and nomination for the Ombudsman post from May 2 to May 15.

Morales, 76, is also a retired SC associate justice appointed by former president Benigno Aquino III as Ombudsman in 2011.

Morales replaced Merceditas Gutierrez, who resigned on May 6, 2011 from the post to avoid an impeachment trial in the Senate, leaving an unexpired term until Nov. 30, 2012.

In summer session last month, the SC dismissed petitions seeking to remove Morales from her post for alleged overstaying.

Justices voted unanimously to dismiss the petitions filed last year by former Metro Rail Transit Line 3 general manager Al Vitangcol and lawyer Rey Nathaniel Ifurung for lack of merit.

The SC found no basis in the prayer of petitioners to declare that the term of office of Morales had expired on Nov. 30, 2012.

It held that Article XI, Section 11 of the 1986 Constitution, Sections 7 and 8(3) of Republic Act No. 6770 provides for a full term of seven years for the Ombudsman.