AN ARTLETS alumnus is among the five senior magistrates invited by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to apply for the chief justice post.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Ramon Paul Hernando completed his bachelor’s degree in Literature at the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters (AB) in 1986.
The other invitees are Senior Associate Justice Mario Victor “Marvic” Leonen and Associate Justices Alfredo Caguioa, Henri Jean Paul Inting and Rodil Zalameda.
Supreme Court spokesperson Camille Sue Mae Ting confirmed the invitations in a statement issued on Tuesday, Sept. 1.
The post will be vacated upon the retirement of Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo on Nov. 6, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. The JBC has set Oct. 13 as the deadline for applications.
Ting said the JBC has invited the five most senior associate justices to apply for the chief justice position since the early 2000s as a matter of courtesy and in recognition of their seniority.
The JBC screens applicants and submits a shortlist of nominees to the President, who appoints the next chief justice.
Created under the 1987 Constitution, the JBC is chaired by the chief justice. Its members include the justice secretary and representatives from Congress, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the academe, the private sector and retired members of the Supreme Court. The clerk of court of the Supreme Court serves as the JBC’s ex officio secretary.
Hernando joined the Supreme Court as its 180th member on Oct. 10, 2018 after then-president Rodrigo Duterte appointed him to fill the vacancy created by Samuel Martires’ appointment as ombudsman.
He obtained his law degree from San Beda College of Law in 1990 and was admitted to the Bar two years later. In 2022, San Beda College Alabang conferred on him an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.
Before joining the High Court, Hernando served as a Court of Appeals associate justice beginning in 2010. He also worked as a state prosecutor at the Department of Justice and as a judge of the Regional Trial Courts in San Pablo City, Laguna and Quezon City.
Hernando has taught civil law, remedial law and commercial law since 1992 at the UST Faculty of Civil Law, San Beda College of Law, the Ateneo de Manila School of Law, the FEU Institute of Law and other institutions.He also served as a Bar examiner in commercial law in the 2009, 2011 and 2016 Bar examinations.
In 2019, Hernando delivered the 51st St. Thomas More Lecture, titled “The Praxis of Justice and the Transformative Power of Truth.”
During the forum, he urged aspiring lawyers to be guided by truth and justice. The annual lecture commemorates the patron saint of AB.
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Born in Tuguegarao City, Cagayan on Aug. 27, 1966, Hernando is set to retire from the Supreme Court in 2036. F
