PRESIDENT Benigno Aquino III has appointed Justice Secretary Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa as the 15th associate justice of the Supreme Court, to fill in the vacancy left by Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr., who availed of early retirement.
In a letter dated Jan. 20, the Office of the President informed Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno, that Caguioa had been chosen as the latest addition to the 15-member bench. The letter was received Friday.
“On behalf of the members of the Court, I welcome Associate Justice Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa to the Court. I am happy that we are once again a complete Court as there is a lot of work to be done which I expect Justice Caguioa to actively take part in,” Sereno said.
Caguioa’s appointment came after the Judicial and Bar Council endorsed him, along with four others—Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr., CA Associate Justices Jose Reyes Jr. and Apolinario Bruselas Jr., and former Commission on Audit chairperson Ma. Gracia Pulido-Tan—for the vacancy.
Caguioa, who served as President Aquino’s chief legal counsel before being appointed Justice secretary, and his classmate from elementary to college, was said to be the top contender for the SC post.
Caguioa took up economics and later law at the Ateneo, where he was a classmate and close friend of Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr., Budget Secretary Florencio Abad, Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares, and Senator Teofisto Guingona III.
Son of the late Court of Appeals Justice Eduardo Caguioa, he was a senior partner of the Caguioa and Gatmaytan law office. Before passing the Bar in 1986, he obtained his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila law school in 1985, along with several members of the current Aquino administration.
He joined SyCip Salazar Hernandez & Gatmaitan in 1986 and was a partner there from 1994 until February 2007.
Caguioa went on leave for a year in 1987 to join his father—where he handled mostly appeal cases in the CA and the Supreme Court.
He was a professor at the colleges of Law of Ateneo de Manila University and San Sebastian College, where he taught obligations and contracts, property, statutory construction and administrative law.
Caguioa is a member of the JBC, but was substituted by Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs Menardo Guevarra during the JBC voting for the shortlist.
The other members of the council are Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., retired SC Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, retired CA Justice Aurora Santiago-Lagman and lawyers Jose Majia and Milagros Fernan-Cayosa.
Villarama retired on Friday after availing of optional or early retirement due to “deteriorating health” following his double-knee metal implantation in 2013 and his cataract operation in 2014.
The Supreme Court is exempted from an election period ban on new appointments, a ruling that President Aquino opposed when then President Gloria Arroyo appointed Renato Corona as chief justice to fill a vacancy left by Chief Justice Reynato Puno in 2010.
Aquino later successfully campaigned to oust Corona by impeachment. Caguioa is his sixth appointee to the high tribunal.
The other five appointed by Aquino are: Sereno and Associate Justices Bienvenido Reyes, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Marvic Leonen and Francis Jardeleza.
The Constitution requires a justice of the Supreme Court to be natural-born citizen, at least 40 years old, with at least 15 years of experience as judge of a lower court or lawyer. The law also requires that the magistrate “must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence.”
During his public interview, Caguioa was grilled about his relationship with President Aquino, and said he would not let that affect his decisions. – With Sandy Araneta