Who's who: A look at the candidates for chief justice

MANILA, Philippines — Five lawyers are in the running to be the country’s next top judge. On Thursday, they will face the Judicial and Bar Council to defend their qualifications.

Under the 1987 Constitution, President Rodrigo Duterte needs to appoint a chief justice within 90 days of the vacancy being created, making September 16 the deadline to name his pick.

The SC, in May, voted 8-6 to oust Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno over missing wealth declaration documents. The tribunal affirmed the controversial ruling in June. The SC also immediately ordered the JBC to start processing applications for the chief justice post.

Here is a quick look at the profiles of the five aspiring to head the judiciary.

Lucas Bersamin

Bersamin is the fifth most senior justice of the SC. He received the most votes from his colleagues to become the next chief justice.

He was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now the House speaker, on April 2, 2009.

Bersamin obtained his law degree from the University of the East and ranked ninth in the Bar exams in 1973 with an average of 86.3%.

Bersamin engaged in a private legal practice before he was appointed as a trial court judge in November 1986.

During his stint as a trial court judge, Bersamin received the Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos Award (Outstanding RTC Judge) in 2002. In 2000, he bagged the Best Decision in Civil Law and Best Decision in Criminal Law recognitions.

According to his profile at the SC website, Bersamin bagged an “unprecedented achievement that has yet to be duplicated.”

Among the most notable cases that Bersamin penned at the SC are the ruling that granted former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile bail due to humanitarian grounds, and the decision that ruled that there was no illegal retrenchment of more than 1,000 flight attendants and stewards of Philippine Airlines.

If he is appointed chief justice, he will hold the position until October 18, 2019.

Teresita De Castro

De Castro is the most senior among the SC justices vying for the chief justice post.

She has been serving the Judiciary for more than four decades—starting as a law clerk at the SC’s Office of the Clerk of Court in 1973 and rising to become a justice of the SC in 2007.

De Castro is an alumna of the University of the Philippines, where she graduated Number 4 in her law school class. She also attended law courses at the International Law Institute in Washington D.C. and Harvard Law School’s Program of Instruction for Lawyers in Massachusetts.

During her stint at the Sandiganbayan, De Castro sat as the presiding justice and chair of the Sandiganbayan Special Division that convicted former President Joseph Ejercito Estrada of plunder.

She was also the ponente of the ruling that allowed Estrada to keep his post as Manila mayor when former Mayor Alfredo Lim and asked the SC to reverse the Comelec decision allowing the pardoned plunderer to run for office.

As a presiding justice of the anti-graft court, De Castro received the Chief Justice Davide Judicial Reform Award in 2005.

She also sits as president of the Philippine Women Judges Association.

De Castro landed in the headlines during the height of the ouster cases against Sereno. She was one of the resource persons at the impeachment proceedings at the House and her line of questioning during the oral arguments on the quo warranto case seemed to confirm a rift between the two justices.

The tension between the two even spilled over to public events.

De Castro will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 on October.

Diosdado Peralta

Arroyo appointed Peralta to the high court in 2009.

He graduated from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law in 1979.

Peralta entered government service in 1987 as an assistant city fiscal in Laoag City. A year later, he was assigned to the Manila prosecutor’s office.

He became a criminal court judge of Quezon City in 1994, where he handled cases on heinous crimes and drug cases. During his stint, he received several commendations.

According to his profile on the SC website, Peralta was a “Bar reviewer, professor, lecturer and resource person in Criminal Law, Criminal Procedure, Remedial Law and Trial Technique in notable universities.”

Peralta penned the SC ruling that allowed the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos' remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

Should Peralta be designated chief justice, he will hold the position until March 27, 2022.

Andres Reyes Jr.

Reyes is the third appointee of President Rodrigo Duterte to the SC. He has been with the SC for a little more than a year.

He is a graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University.

He previously served the Metropolitan Trial Court in Makati City, Regional Trial Court of Makati City and Regional Trial Court of San Mateo, Rizal before he was appointed as a Court of Appeals justice in 1999.

Reyes was later named the presiding justice of the CA.

As the top judge of the appellate court, Reyes issued a joint statement with Sereno over the detention of the six employees of the Ilocos Norte local government. Rep. Pantaleon Alvarez, House speaker at the time, called the CA an “inferior court” and questioned its stand to release the “Ilocos Six.”

If Duterte appoints Reyes as chief justice, he will hold the position until May 2020.

Virginia Tehano-Ang

Ang is the lone Supreme Court outsider among the applicants for chief justice.

She sits as judge of the Tagum City Regional Trial Court Branch 1.

She received her law degree from Ateneo de Davao where she graduated cum laude.

In September 2014, Ang issued the arrest warrant against a suspect in the killing of Rogelio “Tata” Butalid, a local radio anchor.

If Duterte picks Ang as the next chief justice, she will hold the position until July 2023 when she reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.