Duterte appoints Diosdado Peralta as new Chief Justice

President Rodrigo Duterte appointed Supreme Court Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta as the new Chief Justice, Wednesday, October 23.

Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea confirmed on Wednesday the appointment of Peralta. He will replace the retired Luke Bersamin.

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Peralta was the most senior magistrate among the three candidates on Duterte’s shortlist. The other two are Associate Justices Estela Perlas-Barnabe and Andres Reyes, Jr.

Peralta was appointed as a magistrate of the Supreme Court during former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s administration.

The new Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta voted in favor of Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao and the extension of the measures. He also said yes to ousting former presidential critic Maria Lourdes Sereno, and abolishing Arroyo’s plunder case.

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He also ruled on the decision to allow former president Ferdinand Marcos to be buried in the Libingan ng mga Bayani (Heroes’ Tomb). Peralta also agreed that the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel funds were unconstitutional.

Originally a Laoag native, Peralta graduated from the University of Santo Tomas law alumnus and began to be a public prosecutor in 1987. He served as a trial court judge, associate justice and presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan, before being appointed to the Supreme Court in 2009.

Peralta will retire from the judiciary in March 2022, on his 70th birthday.

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