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Part 2: Other applicants vying to be Marcos’ first Supreme Court justice pick

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will name his first Supreme Court (SC) justice soon as Associate Justice Mario Lopez is set to retire on June 7.

The Judicial and Bar Council, mandated to screen applicants for high judicial positions, held the public interviews for the candidates on May 14, 15, 16, and 21. The JBC will later forward a short list to Marcos since the President is mandated to appoint justices, including the chief justice.

There were 17 applicants, but Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Ronald Moreno withdrew his application.

So far, the High Court is dominated by appointees of former president Rodrigo Duterte, including Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo.

Only two are appointed by the late former president Benigno Aquino III: Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen and Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.

Here’s the list of candidates vying to become the first associate justice appointee under the current administration:

1. Nina Antonio Valenzuela

• Current Court of Appeals (CA) associate justice, chairperson of the Eighth Division.
• Appointed to the CA on March 11, 2010, and set to retire from the judiciary on December 13, 2033.
• She served as presiding judge of Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 30 in 2000, and then was promoted in the same court as its first vice executive judge.
• Antonio Valenzuela was appointed in 2005 as Presiding Judge of Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 28. She was later recognized as outstanding Regional Trial Court judge of Manila.
• She previously taught at Saint Scholastica’s College and Adamson University. The CA justice was also part of the SC applicants in 2014 and 2020.
• She was part of the CA division, which upheld the dismissal of the case against journalist Lady Ann Salem and trade unionist Rodrigo Esparago, both of whom were arrested when former president Rodrigo Duterte targeted progressives. 

2. Ramon Bato Jr.

• Current CA associate justice, chairperson of the Second Division.
• Bato is the second most senior justice in the appellate court, next to Presiding Justice Fernanda Lampas Peralta. He was appointed to the CA on March 15, 2004, and will retire from the judiciary on August 27, 2028.
• He obtained his law degree from Silliman University. Before his CA appointment, Bato was a court attorney in the SC and served as a trial court judge in Imus, Cavite, and in Dumaguete City.
• While in the SC, he co-founded the Supreme Court Assembly of Lawyer-Employees and was elected as its first vice president and later as president. 
• Bato wrote the decision that dismissed the double murder case against former national police chief and senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson in the Dacer-Corbito case.
• He was also part of the CA division that upheld the cyber libel conviction of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. in 2022
• The CA justice was also among the applicants in 2011 and 2017. 

3. Darlene Marie Berberabe

• Current dean of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law.
• Prior to her deanship appointment in November 2023, she was the former chief executive officer of the Pag-IBIG fund. 
• Previously, Berberabe was a senior lecturer at the UP College of Law, and a professorial lecturer on jurisprudence and legal philosophy at the Philippine Judicial Academy.
• She obtained her philosophy degree from UP, graduating summa cum laude and class valedictorian of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy in 1989. She became the first female instructor of philosophy in UP. Berberabe was also the salutatorian of her UP law class in 1999.
• Philippine Basketball Association legend Avelino “Samboy” Lim, who passed away in December 2023, was her husband.

4. Maria Rosario Bernardo

• Tax lawyer
• Served as partner of Salvador Llanillo Bernardo Attorneys-at-Law for 23 years.
• Obtained her law degree from the UP College of Law.
• According to her available profile online, she served as division chief in the corporate affairs group of the Department of Finance from 2001 to 2003. She was involved in the review of infrastructure contracts, loan agreements, and even tax revenue measures.
• Bernardo was a member of the negotiating team for the Philippine-Germany and Manila Economic Cultural Office-Taiwan double taxation agreement.
• She also worked at SGV & Co.’s tax division from 1998 to 2000, according to her profile.

5. Carlito Calpatura

• Current CA associate justice, Ninth Division senior member.
• He earned his law degree from the Manuel L. Quezon University, where he also teaches law.
• As a lawyer, Calpatura has experience in private practice and government. He also previously worked as a litigation lawyer.
• Calpatura also served as presiding judge of different court branches before his CA appointment.
• He was the Makati City judge who acquitted a member of the Philippine National Police Special Action Force of murder over the cop’s alleged involvement in a bus bombing in Makati City in 2011.
• It was also Calpatura who freed Dominga Cadelina in 2013 — Janet Napoles’ helper, whom Napoles had framed up for alleged theft. In 2018, Calpatura also sentenced a cop to 12 years for killing a motorcycle rider arrested for a traffic violation in July 2016.
• Calpatura also concurred in the CA decisions that convicted a checkpoint cop in the Ampatuan massacre case, and in the decision that junked Senator Francis Tolentino’s libel case against broadcast journalist Ted Failon.

6. Ramon Cruz

• CA associate justice, chairperson of the Fifth Division.
• A native of Bicol.
• He was appointed to the CA on November 05, 2009, and will retire from the judiciary on August 25, 2027.
• Cruz concurred in the CA decision that voided a 2018 shutdown order against Rappler by the Securities and Exchange Commission, and ordered the restoration of the news organization’s certificate of incorporation.
• He also concurred in the CA decision that sentenced US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton to a maximum of 10 years in prison for killing transwoman Jennifer Laude in 2014.

7. Maria Elisa Sempio-Diy

• CA associate justice, chairperson of the 11th Division.
• Appointed to the CA on February 22, 2012, and will retire from the judiciary on April 25, 2036.
• Sempio-Diy the daughter of former CA justice Alicia Sempio-Diy, a known family law expert.
• She earned her psychology degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1986, and then her law degree from San Beda University later on. She ranked third in her graduating class.
• Before her CA appointment, Sempio-Diy served as Quezon City RTC judge from 2005 to 2012, and then as Municipal Trial Court judge in Quezon City from 2001 to 2005.
• In 2015, it was Sempio-Diy who penned the CA decision that said the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has no power to implement its anti-smoking campaign.
• She is the ponente of the CA ruling that approved the phase-out of 15-year-old buses in 2016. She also concurred in the CA ruling that stopped a Manila court order that questioned the Philippine-US extradition treaty.

8. Myra Garcia Fernandez

• CA associate justice, chairperson of the Sixth Division.
• She was appointed to the CA on March 11, 2010, and will retire from the judiciary on June 24, 2033.
• She served as examiner for Ethics and Practical Exercises during the 2016 Bar Examinations.
• Garcia Fernandez is the ponente of the ruling that affirmed the dismissal of over 200 Coke employees in 2014.
• In 2018, Garcia Fernandez wrote the CA ruling that denied the petition filed by a cop who’s a supect in the killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo. The cop sought to reverse the ruling of the Angeles City, Pampanga Regional Trial Court that granted the motion to discharge one of the co-accused in the case and turn him into a state witness.
• She also concurred in the the CA ruling that affirmed the ban on field trials of genetically-modified eggplant in the country. (To be concluded) – Rappler.com

NEXT: Part 2 |Other applicants vying to be Marcos’ first Supreme Court justice pick