PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Wednesday named another contemporary in San Beda College law school as the latest addition to the Supreme Court.
Court of Appeals Associate Justice Noel Tijam, the Court’s 176th Associate Justice and newest member, will fill the post vacated by retired Justice Arturo Brion, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Dec. 29, 2016.
“The Chief Justice and the associate justices of the Supreme Court welcome the Hon. Noel G. Tijam as the Court’s 176th Associate Justice and its newest member,” the Court said in a statement.
Tijam’s appointment came just two days after Duterte named Sandiganbayan associate justice and fellow Bedan Samuel Martires to the Court.
Tijam graduated magna cum laude from San Beda College in 1967, with a bachelor of arts degree in Philosophy and Political Science. In 1971, he graduated salutatorian from the San Beda College of Law.
In 2011, Tijam wrote the CA resolution that upheld the inclusion of former Maguindanao Gov. Andal Ampatuan Sr. in the list of respondents in the Maguindanao massacre case, where 57 people were killed.
The CA junked Ampatuan’s petition, which sought to dismiss two resolutions by the Justice Department that found probable cause to indict him for one of the worst cases of election-related killings in Philippine history.
He also became one of the CA justices who handled the case of Reynald “Jojo” Lim, the brother of alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim Napoles and wrote the CA resolution reaffirming its earlier ruling on the closure of the thrift bank Banco Filipino in 2011, after it failed to settle its obligations.
Before his appointment to the appellate court in 2003, he served as presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 221. He has also held various positions in the private sector and in government.
The 68-year-old justice earned four votes from the Judicial and Bar Council during the panel interviews last November.
Questioned about the President’s move to appoint more graduates of the San Beda College of Law at the high court, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said there was nothing wrong with it “as long as they’re qualified.”
Like his fellow appointee Martires, Tijam will have two years to serve before he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Both Martires and Tijam were graduates of the San Beda College law school, like Duterte. They are also both insiders in the judiciary whose appointments brought back the tradition of promoting justices to the Supreme Court from the ranks of the judiciary.
During his interview with the JBC, Tijam said his decisions will be independent from the influence of his law school classmate, Duterte.
Tijam and Martires join two other San Beda law graduates in the Court, Associate Justices Jose Mendoza and Bienvenido Reyes, who are both fraternity brothers of Duterte.
The two new appointments came as the Court is set to hear oral arguments next week in the petition of detained Senator Leila de Lima, political nemesis of the President, in connection to drug cases against her in court.
