New SC justice gets support

Former Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Jose Vicente Salazar joined the supporters of the appointment of Court of Appeals Justice Ruben Reyes to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court (SC).

“President Arroyo’s appointment of Reyes is well placed as Reyes underwent the usual clinical scrutiny of the Judicial Bar Council (JBC) which is made up of known legal luminaries who took cognizance of the depth of knowledge and competence in the judiciary of Justice Reyes,” Salazar said.

The only indispensable requirement for a seat in the SC is the approval of the JBC and Reyes  was already nominated for six times.

“It is a well deserved and long in coming appointment,” Salazar added. 

He said the continued competence of Reyes in the field of law will definitely leave an indelible mark in the SC.

Reyes is a career jurist. He has traveled the model judicial route with unblemished integrity as a private and corporate practitioner for 10 years, assistant city prosecutor  of Manila for nine years, regional trial court judge of Bataan and Manila for 10 years and CA justice for 13 years.

He studied law as a working student, scholar, law council president and law editor. A 1962 alumnus of Manuel L. Quezon University, he has taken eight summer courses in U.S., including the 1st Harvard Law School Workshop for Law Teachers and Scholars, Academy of American and International Law, Appellate Judges Seminar, California Judicial College and National Judicial College.

He is president of the Philippine Association of Law Professors, trustee and lecturer of the Philippine Judicial Academy, 2002 Bar Examiner in Legal Ethics, author of Bar Reviewer on Special Penal Laws, MCLE lecturer on substantive and procedural law, legal writing, ethics and law reforms; co-chair, Supreme Court sub-committee on MCLE Draft Rules; member, SC committee on legal education and bar matters and resource person in criminal and remedial laws, UP Law Center.