The brother of dismissed Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Gregory Ong has been appointed to the Court of Appeals.
The Supreme Court public information office on Monday revealed that lawyer Walter Ong has been named by President Rodrigo Duterte as CA associate to take the vacancy arising from the promotion of Associate Justice Noel Tijam to the SC.
The new CA justice is formerly in private law practice with Ong, Meneses, Gonzalez, and Gupit law offices. He finished his law degree from Ateneo de Manila University and master’s in law degree from University of Pennsylvania.
The Supreme Court had dismissed Walter’s brother from the judiciary in September 2014 for “gross misconduct, dishonesty and impropriety.”
Gregory, who was linked with suspect pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles, was accused of “serious transgressions” when he acquitted her in 2010 of criminal charges from anomalies in the government purchase of 500 Kevlar helmets for the Marines.
Gregory’s retirement benefits, except accrued leaves, were forfeited and he was barred from entering government service as part of the administrative decision.
The 15-member bench found that Ong inappropriately met with Napoles after her acquittal, which came prior to the ongoing plunder cases against her for embezzling billions in senators’ Priority Development Assistance Funds through dummy organizations.
Meanwhile, President Duterte also promoted CA Associate Justice Romeo Barza as presiding justice of the appellate court to replace Presiding Justice Andres Reyes who was also promoted to the SC earlier this year.
Barza was among those who dismissed the plea of detained Sen. Leila de Lima in her drug trading cases.
Duterte also promoted Makati City regional trial court Judge Maryann Corpus-Mañalac to the Sandiganbayan. She was the judge who ordered the eviction of Sunvar Corp. from the Mile-long property in Makati City.