Aquino appoints Jardeleza as new SC associate justice - Manila Bulletin

by Genalyn Kabiling

August 20, 2014

Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza is the new Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, the fifth appointee of the President Benigno Aquino III in the high tribunal.

“President Aquino has appointed Solicitor General Francis H. Jardeleza as Associate Justice of the Supreme Court,” Presidential Communications Operations Secretary Herminio Coloma Jr. announced on Wednesday.

Coloma said Jardeleza’s appointment paper, signed by the President last August 19, was transmitted to the Supreme Court on Wednesday morning. It was the last day to fill the position vacated by Associate Justice Roberto Abad, who retired last May.

The appointment of Jardeleza came a day after the Supreme Court granted his petition to be included in the list of candidates for the vacant Supreme Court justice position.

The solicitor general earlier accused the Judicial and Bar Council of violating his right to due process after he was excluded in the shortlist without being given a chance to answer the allegations against him.

Other appointees of Aquino in the 15-member Supreme Court are Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices Bienvenido Reyes, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Marvic Leonen.

Jardeleza, a law graduate from the University of the Philippines, served as Solicitor General since February 2012. He was appointed Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon in July 2011.

After obtaining his master’s degree from Harvard Law School in 1977, Jardeleza practiced law for three decades. He also served as senior vice president and general counsel of San Miguel Corporation from 1996 to 2010 as well as professor at the UP College of Law.

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