The Judicial and Bar Council announced that applications for four associate justice posts in the Court of Appeals and in the Sandiganbayan are now open.
The vacancy in the CA was the post previously held by Associate Justice Maria Filomena Singh who had been promoted to the Supreme Court on 18 May 2022.
Two other vacated CA posts were those occupied by Associate Justices Manuel Barrios and Loida Posadas-Kahulugan who will compulsorily retire on 29 November 2022 and 19 January 2023, respectively.
The vacancy at the Sandiganbayan was the one left by Associate Justice Alex Quiroz whose optional retirement was approved on 2 August 2022.
Also opened for applications or nominations are the posts of two regular members of the Legal Education Board.
The posts vacated were those previously occupied by Manuel Riguera, representative of the Philippine Association of Law Professors, and Josefe Sorera-Ty, representative of the Philippine Association of Law Schools.
The JBC — the constitutional office which accepts, screens and nominates appointments in the judiciary — said that deadline for the applications and nominations is on 20 December 2022.
In 1993, the LEB was created under Republic Act 7662, the Education Reform Act.
Among its functions are to supervise and set accreditation standards for law schools, to prescribe the basic curricula for the course of study aligned to the requirements for admission to the bar, law practice and social consciousness, and to establish a law practice internship as a requirement for taking the Bar examinations.
To recall, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr., since his assumption to office has appointed two trial court judges as CA associate justices and the chief of the SC's Fiscal Management and Budget Office as associate justice of the Court of Tax Appeals.
Those appointed as CA associate justices were then Regional Trial Court Judges Selma Palacio Alaras and Wilhelmina Jorge Wagan. Alaras and Wagan took over the posts vacated by retired CA Associate Justices Gabriel Ingles and Edgardo Camello, respectively.
Appointed CTA associate justice was SC-FMBO Chief Corazon Ferrer-Flores who took over the post vacated by Associate Justice Juanito Castaneda.
The new members of the appellate courts took their oaths of office before Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo on 19 October 2022.
