SC Justice Delos Santos retires from Judiciary
MANILA, Philippines — Associate Justice Edgardo Delos Santos on Tuesday officially stepped down from the Supreme Court, a year ahead of his mandatory retirement.
On Tuesday afternoon, the SC en banc held a retirement ceremony for Delos Santos, which was streamed live on its YouTube channel.
Addressing his colleagues for the last time, Delos Santos extended his gratitude for his years at the Supreme and his 43 “challenging and interesting” years serving the Judiciary.
“There is one thing that I will certainly rare feeling after the contentious and at times heated exchanges between justices… rare and special feeling of collegiality, camaraderie, the other side of a supreme court justice, light moments we shared whether face-to-face deliberations in Padre Faura, in Baguio City or merely virtual,” he said.
“Gods and goddesses of Padre Faura myth more often than not gave way to more important facet of human nature: Love, compassion and mercy. This other side of our life, is often reflected in our ponencia,” Delos Santos continued.
During the ceremonies, justices shared their anecdotes of Delos Santos, including his fondness of music and of jokes. They also recalled how the retiring justice was the first Court of Appeals magistrate who was directly appointed to the high court.
Cebu-based Delos Santos, during his public interview with the Judicial and Bar Council, was known as the habal-habal driver judge of Dumaguete City who succeeded Associate Justice Gabriel Inglis as executive judge of the Visayas station.
In a statement, the SC Public Information Office recalled that Delos Santos rose to the ranks from being a court legal researcher while completing his studies at the University of San Carlos College of Law. He later became a presiding judge in Negros Oriental Municipal Trial Court in 1983, as presiding judge in Municipal Trial Court in Cities in Dumaguete in 1987, and then as Regional Trial Court Presiding Judge in Bacolod City.
He was promoted to the Court of Appeals in 2008.
Justice Jhosep Lopez even quipped that Delos Santos’ life story should be featured in ABS-CBN’s anthology show Maaalala Mo Kaya, but the magistrate noted that the TV station has since been forced shut.
“Unfortunately, that TV station has to be closed down and so I think his life must still be feature… in Channel 7 Wish Ko Lang,” Lopez said.
Almora petition
With Delos Santos’ retirement, the years-old petition of families of "drug war" victims is again left hanging. Case files, including voluminous records on the Duterte government’s blood “drug war,” will be transferred to the justice that will fill Delos Santos’ seat at the SC bench.
President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Delos Santos to the SC in December 2019 filling the seat vacated by Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio — who was previously the member-in-charge of the “drug war” petition or the Almora petition.
Following court rules, Delos Santos inherited Carpio’s pending cases.
Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo confirmed this in his first meet the press event on June 11.
Asked then what will be the fate of the high-profile case, Gesmundo said: “I do not want to pre-empt Justice [Delos Santos] on his recommendation before his retirement, but I’m sure that Justice [Delos Santos] will submit before his retirement.”
“Unfortunately I cannot supervise how Justice [Delos Santos] does his work in a specific case, we merely rely on the moment the draft ponencia is circulated and what his analysis will be is too early for me to say, until the draft ponencia and the report and recommendation are distributed to each member of the court,” the chief justice added.
Gesmundo in the same interview said justices agreed that all petitions, cases or matters that reached the SC after April 5, 2021 shall be resolved within 24 months.
The JBC early June opened applications for Delos Santos’ seat, with a deadline of interested candidates to set scheduler put on July 16.
No other details on Delos Santos’ early retirement were made available, but SC spokesperson Brian Hosaka earlier confirmed that the magistrate had advised his staff as early as March 19 to start looking for other jobs.
This is the third early retirement of a sitting justice of the SC since 2020.
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