MANILA, Philippines — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has tapped former Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin to replace Vic Rodriguez as his executive secretary, Malacañang confirmed Tuesday.
The appointment of Bersamin, who currently heads the Government Service Insurance System, comes after Rodriguez' resignation as executive secretary due to personal reasons.
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Rodriguez' stepping down from the post came on the heels of the sugar importation mess which he got dragged into.
While a majority of senators who investigated the botched importation absolved Rodriguez from any wrongdoing, the Senate minority bloc said he was not totally faultless largely due to his failure to respond to queries by agriculture officials regarding the planned sugar importation.
Rodriguez was Marcos' lawyer in his poll protest against former Vice President Leni Robredo and was his campaign spokesperson.
Bersamin started his career in the judiciary in November 1986, when he was appointed as a trial court judge for which he 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.
Bersamin was appointed as Court of Appeals associate justice in March 2003.
Then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, now a senior deputy speaker in the House of Representatives, appointed Bersamin to the high court on April 2, 2009.
Among the high-profile rulings Bersamin penned while at the SC was the grant of bail to former Sen. Juan Ponce Enrile due to humanitarian grounds and the decision holding that more than 1,000 flight attendants and stewards of Philippine Airlines were not illegally retrenched.
Bersamin also penned the ruling that ordered the “immediate release” of Arroyo — who appointed him to the SC — after the court allowed her to challenge the evidence against her which led to the dismissal of the case.
Bersamin also voted to grant the government’s quo warranto petition against then Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, uphold the constitutionality of martial law in Mindanao and its year-long extension, affirm the jurisdiction of a trial court on the drug case against Sen. Leila De Lima and allow the burial of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos Sr. at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. — Xave Gregorio with reports from Kristine Joy Patag