Peralta: I’m not a bar topnotcher but I deserve to be chief justice

MANILA, Philippines — Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta asserted that he deserves to be the country’s next top magistrate during his third attempt for the position of chief justice.

He is one of the four justices vying for the post to be vacated by Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin when he hangs up his robes next month along with Associate Justices Jose Reyes Jr., Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Andres Reyes Jr. Peralta is the most senior in terms of Supreme Court experience.

Peralta, during his interview with the Judicial and Bar Council, said he has been receiving criticisms that he is neither a bar topnotcher nor an honor student.

“If I remember what I have experienced since I started working, it’s hard. I think I deserve to be chief justice because I worked hard,” he said, his voice breaking.

A teary Peralta said his work experiences “are more than enough to compensate with what they say that I do not deserve because I’m not a topnotcher or I’m not an honor student.”

Peralta started his career in the government as an assistant city fiscal in Laoag City in 1987. In 1994, he was appointed as a criminal court judge in Quezon City handling heinous crimes and drug-related cases.

President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed him to the high court in 2009.

“I hope you have to take those into consideration that there is hope for an individual like me,” Peralta said.

The Ilocos Norte native penned the Supreme Court ruling that allowed the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos’ remains at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.

When he faced the JBC panel in 2018, Peralta stood by his decision. “If we do not bury that issue, then we cannot move on and I still believe that whatever is the past, we have to move on. We will not improve as a nation if we do that.”

Peralta will retire from the high court in March 2022. — Gaea Katreena Cabico