Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin bowed out of the judiciary on Friday, ending his 33-year career as a judge, Court of Appeals magistrate and 10 years as an associate justice of the Supreme Court—including his 11-month stint as top magistrate.
Bersamin, who reached the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Oct. 18, has said he would like to be remembered as the “healing chief justice who brought stability and normalcy back to the judiciary,” particularly in the Supreme Court.
Bersamin was President Rodrigo Duterte’s second appointee as chief justice following the retirement of Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, who served for less than two months after the ouster of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno last year, and whose appointment to the high court was invalidated via quo warranto proceedings.
“Yes, the judiciary needed healing and it became my responsibility as chief justice to initiate and ensure such healing,” Bersamin said in his speech during the retirement rites last week.
During his 11-month stint Bersamin initiated the updates in the Rules of Court and in the Bar exams, implemented reforms to stop corruption in the judiciary and enhanced law students’ participation in extending legal assistance to indigents.
Bersamin, a graduate of University of the East College of Law, was appointed as a Quezon City regional trial court judge in 1986 and was promoted to the Court of Appeals in 2003. In 2009 President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed him as associate justice of the Supreme Court.
As a high court justice, Bersamin authored the majority decision that acquitted Arroyo of plunder and the ruling that granted bail to former Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, an official accused of plunder in case of the pork barrel scam at the Sandiganbayan, on humanitarian grounds.
He also wrote the high court decision declaring some acts under the Disbursement Acceleration Program unconstitutional. He was also part of the unanimous vote that declared the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel unconstitutional.
Bersamin also authored the decision favoring Philippine Airlines’ retrenchment of 1,400 cabin crew employees in 1998, and the ruling that upheld Arroyo’s authority to appoint the next chief justice despite a ban on “midnight appointments” under the Constitution.
He voted in favor of the extensions of martial law in Mindanao, the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Heroes’ Cemetery, the ouster of Sereno, and the continuing detention of Senator Leila de Lima on graft charges.
Bersamin also voted with the majority in the Presidential Electoral Tribunal ordering the release of the committee report on the results of the revision of votes in three pilot provinces to former Senator Ferdinand Marcos Jr. and Vice President Leni Robredo
The PET ordered both Marcos and Robredo to comment and submit their position on Marcos’ bid to annul annul the votes in three Mindanao provinces.
Earlier, Bersamin admitted he had wanted to delay the vote because he did not like the speculations he manipulated the result, but he was prevailed upon by the majority.
The Judicial and Bar Council earlier submitted to Duterte a shortlist of the nominees aspiring to succeed Bersamin: Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Andres Reyes Jr.
Duterte has 90 days from Bersamin’s retirement to appoint a new chief justice.