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By Jomar Canlas Reporter
FOUR magistrates are contending
to become presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan, the only vacancy
in the country’s anti-graft court.
The Judicial and Bar Council has
submitted to President Gloria Arroyo the names of Acting Presiding
Justice Edilberto Sandoval, Justices Cristina Cortez-Estrada,
Francisco Villaruz and Diosdado Peralta.
The position of presiding justice
is vital as he or she will act as the primary administrator of the
whole anti-graft court and will sit as first among equals among the
justices.
The 15-member Sandiganbayan
handle cases involving plunder, violations of the Anti-Graft and
Corrupt Practices Act, and the forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth
cases.
Two of the four contenders,
Villaruz and Peralta, convicted former President Joseph Estrada. One
of the original magistrates who handled the Estrada case was
Sandoval, but later on inhibited himself from handling the case.
The four justices are all
chairmen of the Sandiganbayan divisions. Justice Gregory Ong also
applied for the position, but the Judicial and Bar Council did not
include him because of three pending cases before the Supreme Court,
all questioning his citizenship.
Profiles of contenders
Edilberto Sandoval is now the
most senior magistrate at the Sandi-ganbayan. He has been serving
the judiciary for the past 25 years, which includes 13 years as a
regional trial court judge and 12 years as Sandiganbayan justice.
He was named as the most
outstanding regional trial court judge of Manila for three
consecutive times, from 1991.
Sandoval heads the Sandi-ganbayan’s
Second Division that is now handling the plunder case of former
General Carlos Garcia.
The Judicial and Bar Council
nominated him four times to the Supreme Court and three times as
Sandiganbayan presiding justice. He was passed over as presiding
justice, which went to Teresita Leonardo-de Castro. Previously,
Sandoval had served as acting presiding justice twice.
He is a law professor teaching in
several universities and colleges in Metro Manila and nearby
provinces. Sandoval is also a Bar reviewer, and known as an expert
in criminal law. He was Bar examiner in the 1993 Bar Examinations
for criminal law, and during the 1998 Bar Examinations for legal and
judicial ethics.
He has authored two law books
(Pointers in Criminal Law and a book on the Revised Penal Code).
He graduated cum laude and class
valedictorian in law at the Far Eastern University, and later worked
for the law office of the late Senate President Neptali Gonzalez.
Sandoval was born in Mabini,
Batangas, on June 20, 1941, the son of public school principal
Epifanio Sandoval Sr. and public school teacher Francisca Sandoval.
The second candidate, Cristina
Cortez-Estrada, is chairman of the Sandiganbayan’s Fifth Division
that handled the controversial claim of the Marcos family to the
assets and corporations of taipan Lucio Tan.
Estrada was born on November 30,
1939 in Manila and grew up in Isabela. She is married to the late
labor lawyer Alfredo Estrada, who was killed while defending a case
of company workers.
She is the daughter of the late
lawyer Emiliano Cortez, the former chief of the Malacañang Law
Division, and of the late Antonia Gaffud.
Estrada started her career in
Malacañang with the Office of President Diosdado Macapagal as a
clerical aide in 1961. She became a legal officer in Malacañang in
1963 and was later appointed as regional trial court judge of
Legazpi City in 1983. She served that court for 15 years, until she
was appointed to the Sandiganbayan on March 3, 1998.
She is a single mother who raised
three children. One became a doctor, the other a lawyer, and another
holds a master’s in business administration.
Estrada finished elementary and
high school from St. Theresa’s College. She finished her
undergraduate and law degrees from the University of the Philippines
as a scholar.
Third on the shortlist is
Francisco Villaruz, chairman of the Sandiganbayan’s Third
Division. He was senior member of the Special Division of the
anti-graft court that convicted Estrada for plunder.
The Judicial and Bar Council
recommended the magistrate several times to the Supreme Court. He
was on the shortlist, along with former Labor Secretary Arturo Brion,
the newest member of the High Tribunal.
Villaruz is one of President
Arroyo’s first appointees to the anti-graft court, which he joined
in October 2001.
He was a former director of the
Securities and Exchange Commission and had worked for La Tondeña
Distillers Inc. (now Ginebra San Miguel) as vice-president and
general counsel. From elementary to college, he attended Ateneo de
Manila. He took up law at the University of the Philippines and
placed 12th in the 1967 Bar examinations. He was Bar examiner in
criminal law in 2004.
The fourth contender is Diosdado
Peralta, who was the first judge to hand down a guilty verdict in a
plunder case.
Peralta is chairman of the
Sandiganbayan’s First Division and is the third member of the
Special Division of the Sandiganbayan that convicted Estrada.
Peralta has been called as the
“hanging judge” of Quezon City. He recently told The Manila
Times that he has a 90-percent conviction rate during his stint as
Quezon City regional trial court judge, and that he is one of the
Convenors of the Guillotine Club.
He has sentenced to death 44
people in 20 cases he handled as a regional trial court judge.
Peralta was considered to be
Ombudsman. He received seven votes from members of the Judicial and
Bar Council, versus eight votes for Merceditas Gutierrez, who was
appointed as Ombudsman.
His father, the late Manila Court
of First Instance Judge Elviro Peralta, is a friend of the late
President Diosdado Macapagal, father of President Arroyo. In fact,
Peralta was named after the late President. His wife, Fernanda
Lampas-Peralta, is with the Court of Appeals, appointed by President
Arroyo.
He finished law at the University
of Santo Tomas. He is a former prosecutor, an expert in criminal
law, and a multi-awarded judge.
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