CA justice Rosario appointed to Supreme Court
MANILA, Philippines (Updated 3:10 p.m.)— President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Court of Appeals Associate Justice Ricardo Rosario as the newest magistrate of the Supreme Court.
The Supreme Court Public Information Office confirmed that Rosario is set to take his oath before Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta on Friday afternoon.
A copy of his appointment paper showed that he was appointed on October 8,
Rosario has been in the appellate court since September 2005, serving as an associate justice for 15 years.
Rosario takes over the seat vacated by retired justice Jose ReyesJr. and completes the 15-member bench of the SC. He would be joining the high court on the oral arguments on 37 petitions filed against the highly contentious Anti-Terrorism Act of 2020.
Romy vs Lim, Sereno ouster
He last faced the Judicial and Bar Council, the panel screening applicants to the Judiciary, in September 2019.
In his public interview on Dec. 5, 2018, Rosario was asked on the ruling in a case against small-time drug trade Romy Lim, which set mandatory policy in arrests and seizures related to illegal drugs cases.
It said that a court may dismiss the case outright if provisions on the custody and disposition of drugs — Section 21 of Republic Act 9165 or the Comprehensive Dangerous Drugs Act — was not adhered to.
Rosario said then that he would follow the decision, but felt that there should be “liberal or lenient application of the rules.” He added that the principle “undermines the campaign of the government to implement existing drug laws.”
“There is no need for the apprehending officers to strictly comply with the requirement of [Section] 21 regarding physical inventory for as long as the integrity is preserved,” he said.
“I will apply the regular presumption that police officers comply with their functions, in good faith,” he added.
Asked about the controversial ouster of former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno through quo warranto, Rosario said that the decision “did not actually affect the integrity of the Supreme Court.”
“No reason to doubt judicial independence of members of high tribunal,” he added.
Who is Rosario?
Rosario graduated law from the Ateneo De Manila University in 1983 and passed the Bar Examinations given the following year.
He started his career in law as a legal officer of the National Bureau of Investigation, then as senior corporate attorney in the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage System.
He was later appointed as a senior assistant city prosecutor in Quezon City in 1994 where he served for three years. Rosario became the presiding judge of Manila Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 19 in 1997, then later as presiding judge of the Makati Regional Trial Court Branch 66.
In 2005, Rosario was promoted to the Court of Appeals as an associate justice.
Rosario was born on Oct. 15, 1958 in Quezon City, as fourth of the 13 children of lawyer Eduardo Gutierrez Rosario and policewoman Anita De Rivera Rosario.
His wife is an assistant director of the Bureau of Internal Revenue.
Rosario will serve the SC for the next eight years or until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70 in October 2028.
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