Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta
President Rodrigo Duterte on Tuesday appointed career jurist Diosdado Peralta chief justice, replacing Lucas Bersamin on the highest perch on the Supreme Court.
Duterte signed Peralta’s appointment paper on Oct. 23, hours after returning from a trip to Japan. Peralta will serve until March 2022.
“CJ (chief justice) Peralta has served the judiciary for more than three decades in various capacities: as a trial court judge, associate justice and presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan, and associate justice of the High Court,” Palace spokesman Salvador Panelo said in a statement.
Panelo noted that Peralta wrote “many landmark decisions that reverberate to this time, which include the imposition of the death penalty on a policeman who used his service firearm to shoot an 11-year-old boy while flying his kite on a rooftop in People vs. Fallorina; the first conviction for plunder involving a cashier of the Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR) in People vs. Manalili; the first and only conviction of Qualified Bribery under Article 211-A of the Revised Penal Code, as amended, involving a substantial number of police officers in the case of suspected foreign drug-traffickers.”
“Justice Peralta likewise convicted the most number of accused involved in big-time drug cases and other serious crimes,” Panelo added.
“We are certain that with Chief Justice Peralta at the helm of the Supreme Court, the Judiciary will continue to be well-managed as it thrives to uphold the principles of judicial excellence, integrity and independence,” he said.
Sen. Panfilo Lacson, who said he often consulted Peralta on legal issues, heaped praises on the new chief magistrate.
“The President couldn’t have chosen a better qualified Chief Justice,” he said in a statement.
“He is known for his integrity and competence, and one who enjoys the respect of his peers and others inside and outside the legal circle. I have known him all the way back when he was [Quezon City Regional Trial Court] judge who convicted almost if not all the KFR (kidnapping-for-ransom) suspects I apprehended when I was still in the law-enforcement service,” he added. (PressONE.ph)