President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed Senior Deputy Executive Secretary Michael Pastores Ong as an associate justice of the Court of Appeals.
Vice Associate Justice Samuel Gaerlan was promoted to magistrate of the Supreme Court last January 8, 2020.
Malacañang through Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea sent Ong’s appointment papers Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo last January 26.
Ong was assistant secretary in the Office of the Presidential Legal Counsel from 2010 to 2012. He was also with the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs before he assumed the post of senior deputy executive secretary.
Ong took his oath before the Chief Justice on Thursday. Ong holds an economics degree from ADMU and is part of the UP College of Law Class of 2002.
He first served as court attorney for former Supreme Court Associate Justice and Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
He was also corporate legal counsel of the PNOC Exploration Corporation.
Ong joined the Office of the President during President Benigno Aquino III’s time. He served in the Office of the Chief Presidential Legal Counsel and later in the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs.
He became Deputy Executive Secretary for General Affairs before he was appointed Senior Deputy Executive Secretary in 2018.
Ong is the second official in the Executive Department appointed to the CA this month of January Last Jan. 21, Chief Justice Gesmundo received the appointment papers of Jennifer Joy Chua as CA associate justices. At the time of her appointment, she is an undersecretary in the Office of the Appointments Secretary of the OP.
Justice Chua, who took over the CA post vacated by retired Justice Ma. Luisa Q. Padilla, immediately took her oath of office before Gesmundo.