MANILA: President Aquino appointed yesterday and immediately swore in government chief peace negotiator Marvic Leonen as Supreme Court (SC) associate justice, a decision that Malacañang said would be one of the administration’s “lasting legacies.”
Leonen, at 49 one of the youngest SC justices ever, is expected to serve for 21 years, or until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. He took his oath at 4:20pm at Malacañang.
While his appointment was expected because he had worked with Aquino, the President said he interviewed all the nominees for the position to give everyone a fair chance.
Leonen’s appointment immediately broke in social media as his friends and well-wishers started congratulating him.
Confirming the appointment, Leonen said the President’s choice was consistent with his “desire for a judiciary imbued with the highest standards of independence, probity and integrity.”
A former dean of the University of the Philippines College of Law, Leonen earned praise for leading the government panel that hammered out a framework agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (Milf), which could pave the way for lasting peace and development in Mindanao.
He received his Bachelor of Laws from UP and Master of Laws from Columbia University in New York.
He fills the seat vacated by Maria Lourdes Sereno, who was appointed chief justice.
“President Aquino views his appointment as a contribution to his vision of an empowered, independent, and reformist judiciary. Dean Leonen had contributed significantly to the cause of a just, dignified, and lasting peace with our Muslim brothers and sisters while keeping with the spirit and letter of the Constitution,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.
“A revitalised Supreme Court, with the renewed confidence and public trust of our people, is essential to the fulfillment of the President’s social contract with the Filipino people: a truly impartial judicial system that delivers equal justice to rich and poor,” he said.
Before heading the peace panel in 2011, Leonen served as dean of the UP College of Law from 2008 to 2011 but offered to resign in December 2010 due to a plagiarism issue.
The Philippine star
