Supreme Court Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo on Monday bade farewell to his colleagues in the judiciary days before he reaches his mandatory retirement age of 70 on Monday, July 29.
In his speech during his last flag-raising ceremony in the SC, where he served for 10 years, Del Castillo thanked his fellow magistrates and court personnel “for serving with me and for serving me in this daunting task of dispensing justice.”
Del Castillo has been in the judiciary since 1989 when he was appointed Municipal Trial Court judge of San Mateo, Rizal or a total of 30 years in service.
“I wouldn’t have made it without you, and I can’t thank you enough,” he said.
Del Castillo, one of the four remaining appointees of former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo in the High Court, will retire with a zero backlog in both his en banc and division cases, according to the SC public information office.
This means that the magistrate was able to dispatch all cases assigned to him by the Court.
It was Del Castillo, who chaired the SC’s 2018 Bar exams committee, who penned the ruling of the Court in July 2017 that upheld President Rodrigo Duterte’s declaration of martial law in Mindanao.
Del Castillo was also known as the “zero backlog” justice in the Court of Appeals prior to his promotion to the SC by Arroyo in July 2009.
His retirement leaves another vacancy in the 15-member bench that would allow President Duterte to appoint another associate justice, who would be his 10th appointee in the SC so far in his three years in office.
The Judicial and Bar Council has already submitted to the Palace a shortlist of six nominees to replace Del Castillo: CA Associate Justices Apolinario Bruselas Jr., Japar Dimaampao, Ramon Garcia, Jhosep Lopez and Rodil Zalameda, and Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez—earlier this month.
The President has 90 days from vacancy to make the appointment that would complete the composition of the SC en banc.
There are currently seven members of the Court appointed by Duterte – Associate Justices Andres Reyes Jr., Alexander Gesmundo, Jose Reyes Jr., Ramon Paul Hernando, Rosmari Carandang, Amy Lazaro-Javier and Henri Jean-Paul Inting.
The two other Duterte appointees in SC were Justice Samuel Martires, who was appointed Ombudsman in July last year, and Justice Noel Tijam, who retired from the judiciary last January.
Later this year, the President is expected to appoint three more associate justices in the SC over the retirements of Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin and Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio in October and Francis Jardeleza in September.