“Peralta and De Castro are among the most senior justices of the SC.

Three associate justices of the Supreme Court (SC) accepted their nominations yesterday to the shortlist for Chief Justice (CJ), Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, a member of the screening body Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), said.

Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo De Castro, Diosdado Peralta and Andres Reyes Jr. have submitted letters stating their acceptance of the nominations.

Peralta and De Castro are among the most senior justices of the SC while Reyes is one of the youngest after being appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte a year ago.

Last Tuesday, Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin became the first to accept the nomination for the top judiciary post.

Peralta, former presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan, was appointed by former President and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the SC on 13 Jan. 2009. He penned the ruling allowing the burial of the late President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani. He will retire in March 2022.

Retired Sandiganbayan Justice and former JBC member Raoul Victorino nominated all the incumbent SC justices for the top magistrate post.

“With reference to former Justice Victorino’s omnibus nomination of all 14 justices, you may view Justice Reyes’ application as indeed an acceptance of a nomination,” Guevarra said.

Prior to his appointment to the SC, Reyes served as presiding justice of the Court of Appeals.

Reyes penned a ruling declaring as unconstitutional then Justice Secretary Leila de Lima’s Department Order (DO) 41 which authorized the Secretary of Justice to issue Hold Departure Orders ,Watch List Orders or Allow Departure Orders.

The circular was used as a basis for imposing a travel ban on Arroyo and her husband Jose Miguel Arroyo pending the resolution of the plunder and electoral sabotage charges filed against them.

De Castro served as a law clerk at the High Court, state counsel for the Department of Justice (DoJ) and presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan. She penned the ruling convicting former President Joseph Estrada of plunder.

She was also the magistrate who penned the decision that declared Estrada eligible to run as mayor of Manila in 2015.

In her ponencia, she held that although Estrada was convicted of plunder by the Sandiganbayan, the pardon subsequently granted to him by Arroyo restored his civil and political rights.

She is set to retire from the SC in October when she reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.

The JBC has set its first deliberation for the Chief Justice post on 3 August, a week after the deadline for the submission of applications and nominations for the post on 26 July.

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