Duterte appoints new CA Justice

PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte has appointed a new justice to the Court of Appeals (CA).

In a transmittal letter signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the newly appointed CA magistrate is Nancy Rivas-Palmones.

Palmones is the current judge of the Valenzuela RTC before her appointment to the appeals court and was a former prosecutor in Quezon City.

Palmones is the wife of former Partylist Rep. and DZRH broadcaster Angelo Palmones.

She graduated high school and college (AB English 1987) in Notre Dame of Kidapawan College in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato. She took up law at the Far Eastern University in 1991.

The vacant position was the last to be filled up from the original 8 announced by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

The other CA appointees were Anisah Amanodin-Umpa, Manila Regional Trial Court Judge Roberto Quiroz; Lawyer Gler Corpin; Justices Bonifacio Pascua, Lorenza Bordios, Raymond Reynold Lauigan and Richard Mordeno.

They replaced retired CA justices Normandie Pizarro, Carmelita Manahan, Sesinando Villon, Edward Contreras and Justices Ramon Paul Hernando, Henri Jean Paul Inting, Rosmari Carandang and Amy Lazaro-Javier  who were promoted to the Supreme Court.

At present, the JBC has also shortlisted eight candidates for Sandiganbayan,  15 for the Court of Tax Appeals (CTA) and 36 for the Court of Appeals.

The JBC is constitutionally mandated to screen and vet nominees to the President for vacant posts in the judiciary and the Offices of the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman. It is chaired by retired Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta, with ex-officio members, Sen. Richard Gordon, Leyte Rep. Vicente Veloso and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra.

Retired (ret.) Supreme Court Justice Jose Catral-Mendoza is the head of the Executive Committee.  Ret. Judge Toribio Ilao, representing the private sector; ret. Judge Franklin Demonteverde and ret. Supreme Court Justice Noel Tijam are the other regular members of the JBC.