President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. has appointed UST Graduate School of Law faculty member Judge Gener Gito as associate justice of Sandiganbayan, a special court handling graft and corruption cases of government officials and employees.
Gito, a UST Graduate School alumnus from batch 2016, was designated to the post on Oct. 8, the Presidential Communications Office announced in a Facebook post. He teaches constitutional and remedial law at the University.
Gito finished his Political Science degree at the University of Batangas in 1992, took up law at San Sebastian College-Recoletos and completed his master’s degree in law at the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila in 2012.
As presiding judge of the Muntinlupa City Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 206, Gito acquitted former senator Leila De Lima in her third and last drug case.
During the previous administration, de Lima, a fierce critic of former president Rodrigo Duterte, faced three charges for her alleged involvement in drug trafficking when she was justice secretary. She was arrested in 2017.
The first case against de Lima was dismissed by the Muntinlupa RTC Branch 205 in 2021. Branch 204 acquitted her in her second case last year.
The former senator’s third case was about her alleged role in the selling of narcotics at the New Bilibid Prison. Gito granted de Lima’s petition for bail in November 2023, allowing her to walk out of jail after more than six years. He dismissed de Lima’s final drug case in June.
Gito presided over regional trial courts in Bataan, Malolos and Muntinlupa City.
He also taught law subjects in the University of the East, Polytechnic University of the Philippines, San Sebastian College, University of Asia & the Pacific, Bulacan State University, Tarlac State University, Univesity of Perpetual Help and Lyceum of the Philippines University.
In 2019, the Society of Judicial Excellence recognized Gito as the most outstanding RTC Judge of the Philippines, awarding him the Chief Justice Cayetano Arellano Award for Judicial Excellence. F
