Bersamin retires as chief justice

October 18, 2019

Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin on Friday retired, ending a 33-year career as judge, including his 11-month stint as top magistrate.

Bersamin reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 had said he would like to be known as a "healing chief justice who brought stability and normalcy back to the judiciary”.

The Judicial and Bar Council earlier submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte a shortlist of replacements to Bersamin. They are Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, and Andres Reyes, Jr.

Bersamin was Duterte's second chief justice appointee following the retirement of Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro who served for less than two months.

Leonardo-De Castro was selected after then Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno's appointment was invalidated through quo warranto proceedings in 2018.

"Yes, the judiciary needed healing and it became my responsibility as chief justice to initiate and ensure such healing," Bersamin said in his speech during the retirement rites last week.

Bersamin initiated updates in the Rules of Court and in the bar exams, implemented reforms to cleanse the judiciary of corruption and enhanced law students' participation in extending legal assistance to the indigents.

Bersamin, a graduate of University of the East College of Law, was appointed as a Quezon City regional trial court judge in 1986, then was selected to the Court of Appeals in 2003. In 2009, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed him as associate justice of the Supreme Court.

As SC justice, Bersamin authored the majority decision that acquitted Arroyo of plunder and a ruling that granted bail to former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile in the pork barrel scam case at the Sandiganbayan on humanitarian grounds.

Bersamin wrote the SC decision declaring some acts under the Disbursement Acceleration Program unconstitutional. 

Bersamin wrote the decision favoring the Philippine Airlines' retrenchment of 1,400 cabin crew employees in 1998, and a ruling that upheld Arroyo's authority to appoint the next chief justice despite a ban on "midnight appointments" under the Constitution.

He voted in favor of extending martial law in Mindanao, burial of former president Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani, ouster of Sereno, and continued detention of Senator Leila de Lima.

Bersamin also voted for the majority decision in the Presidential Electoral Tribunal ordering release of the committee report on the results of revision of votes in three pilot provinces to former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Ma. Leonor Robredo in the 2016 vice presidential race.

Bersamin admitted he had wanted to delay the vote because he did not like speculations he manipulated the result, but was prevailed upon by the majority. DMS