SANDIGAN JUSTICE MINITA CHICO-NAZARIO NAMED TO SUPREME COURT
MANILA, July 14, 2004 (STAR) By Delon Porcalla - The woman justice presiding over the historic plunder trial of deposed President Joseph Estrada will finally take her seat in the Supreme Court, five months after she was appointed to it.Sandiganbayan presiding Justice Minita Chico-Nazario will take her oath this afternoon as the High Court’s 15th member, just two days after the anti-graft court handed two rulings favorable to the Estrada camp — the dismissal of the illegal alias Jose Velarde suit and the granting of "resthouse arrest."
Lawyer Renato Bocar, spokesman for the special division of the anti-graft court trying the former president, confirmed that Nazario will be replacing Justice Josue Bellosillo, who retired last November.
The oath-taking today at Malacañang will make official Nazario’s Feb. 11 appointment to the SC, but which had been put on hold as she wrapped up work in the anti-graft court, Bocar said.
Incidentally, her oath-taking will coincide with the retirement today of senior Justice Jose Vitug, who will be turning 70, the mandatory retirement age for members of the judiciary.
Vitug leaves a legacy of numerous ponencias, including two landmark decisions of the High Court this year — the Tecson vs the Commission on Elections case involving the attempt to cancel and candidacy of movie actor Fernando Poe Jr., and the People vs Mateo case, which ruled that cases where the penalty is life imprisonment or death should be reviewed by the Court of Appeals.
Vitug, who also served as chairman of the SC’s Third Division, the House of Representatives Electoral Tribunal (HRET) and the SC Committee on Education and Bar Matters, will join the Philippine Judicial Academy (PhilJA).
SC spokesman Ismael Khan, however, stressed that Nazario will replace Bellosillo, not Vitug.
Nazario, 64, will become the eighth appointee of President Arroyo in the tribunal, after Antonio Carpio, Ma. Alicia Austria-Martinez, Renato Corona, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Romeo Callejo Sr., Adolf Azcuna and Dante Tinga.
Nazario, who will be the first Sandiganbayan presiding justice to be elevated to the SC, bested four other nominees of the Judicial Bar Council (JBC) — Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo, Court Administrator Presbitero Velasco, Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Cancio Garcia and UP law professor Ruben Balane.
Nazario graduated from the University of the Philippines in 1962 and joined the judiciary in May 1973 after a stint at the Department of Justice. In 1981, she was named clerk of court of the anti-graft court’s first division. From 1987 to 1993, she served as regional trial court judge in Biñan, Laguna.
Rumors of Nazario clinching the SC post had been circulating for more than a week but insiders speculated on Monday that she may be on her way out after the anti-graft court released its ruling on the "resthouse arrest" for the former president.
Reporters also somehow got wind of Nazario’s transfer after her colleague, Edilberto Sandoval, said that the court will resume the plunder trial on Aug. 16 "if and when the composition of the justices is complete."
Nazario reminded Chief Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio to make sure that the trial of the Estrada case proceeds. Villa Ignacio himself raised doubts over the court’s twin rulings but declined to comment on Nazario’s SC appointment. — with Cecille Suerte Felipe
Reported by: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2004
by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved