TWO ASSOCIATE justices who have taught law in UST are among the 28 nominees to the country’s top judicial post.
Former Civil Law Dean Roberto Abad, who was appointed associate justice of the Supreme Court in 2009, was nominated by incumbent Dean Nilo Divina, while Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta got an automatic nomination due to his seniority.
“Justice Abad is a real practitioner and at the same time, a good academician,” Divina told the Varsitarian.
Abad finished law at Ateneo de Manila, while Peralta obtained his law degree from the University in 1979.
At 68, Abad has only two years left in the judiciary due to the mandatory retirement age of 70 years old.
Abad brought major changes to the 2011 Bar exams, which now has a multiple-choice questionnaire aside from essay-type questions.
Abad was recruited by the late Chief Justice Roberto Concepcion, the first UST Law graduate to top the Bar exam, to teach Political Law in the Faculty of Civil Law in 1978.
He also taught Constitutional Law, Administrative Law, Election Law, Law on Public Corporations, and Public International Law.
Meanwhile, Peralta was a professor and bar reviewer in Criminal Law and Criminal Procedure at UST, Ateneo de Manila, and University of the East.
He served as presiding judge of the Quezon City Regional Trial Court and was named presiding judge of the Sandiganbayan and Supreme Court associate justice in 2008 and 2009, respectively.
Other automatic nominees include acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco, Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, and Arturo Brion. Daphne J. Magturo and Nikka Lavinia G. Valenzuela
