As retirement nears, De Castro says SC reform is still possible
MANILA, Philippines — Even with only two months at the most to serve as chief justice, Associate Justice Teresita De Castro asserted that she can still start reform at the Supreme Court.
De Castro, the most senior justice among the applicants for the chief justice post, told the Judicial and Bar Council that she has several projects that she wants the SC to approve.
“One of the important things I’d like to do before I retire is to reorganize the ethics and ethical standards committee,” De Castro said.
She said that it is only through this committee that complaints against justices can be brought to court, but she lamented that the committee was not organized after the stint of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona.
Corona was replaced by former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, whose appointment was voted as null by her colleagues last May.
“There must be a grievance machinery in SC so we can discipline our own,” De Castro stressed.
She is due to retire in October, when she reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.
She also cited the project on the “case management information system.”
“We can already put the information; communication technology [is already] in place and it will gain momentum,” she said.
“It will take years but if the court is able to approve the work plan, time plan—these projects will continue even after I retired from service,” De Castro added.
The justice also stressed: “It is not like I’m starting today. I have accomplished much since 2009.”
De Castro added that she is confident that her colleagues will support the projects she wants to pursue.
“They’ve always supported my recommendations, not only in judicial cases but also in administrative matters and I see no reason why I would not get their support and cooperation,” she also said.
De Castro has a long storied history working with the Philippine justice system, having started working at the SC’s Office of the Clerk of Court in 1973 then moving to the Department of Justice.
She also served at the Sandiganbayan. She became a justice of the SC in 2007.
Retired Justice Jose Mendoza, a regular member of the JBC, waived his opportunity to quiz De Castro noting that the justice has proven her accomplishments in the judiciary.
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.
The public interview is still ongoing.
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