President Rodrigo Duterte has appointed a new associate justice of the Court of Appeals to assume one of the vacancies in the appellate court.
In a transmittal letter signed by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, Duterte promoted Judge Nancy Rivas-Palmones of the Valenzuela City Regional Trial Court as CA associate justice.
Palmones, a former prosecutor in Quezon City before joining the judiciary, is the wife of former party-list lawmaker and dzRH broadcaster Angelo Palmones.
She finished her undergraduate degree at Notre Dame of Kidapawan College in Kidapawan City, North Cotabato before she took up law at the Far Eastern University.
The CA vacancy assumed by Palmones was the last slot from the original eight posts in the appellate court opened by the Judicial and Bar Council.
Duterte recently appointed the following CA associate justices: Anisah Amanodin-Umpa, Roberto Quiroz, Gler Corpin, Bonifacio Pascua, Lorenza Bordios, Raymond Reynold Lauigan and Richard Mordeno.
The vacancies were due to the retirement of CA Associate Justices Normandie Pizarro, Carmelita Manahan, Sesinando Villon, and Edward Contreras, as well as the promotion to the Supreme Court of Justices Ramon Paul Hernando, Henri Jean Paul Inting, Rosmari Carandang and Amy Lazaro-Javier.