Who is Rodil Zalameda? The new chief justice

MANILA, Philippines – Newly-appointed chief justice Rodil Zalameda, 63, is a longtime public servant, having served as city prosecutor and associate justice of the Court of Appeals (CA) and the Supreme Court (SC).

Under a scholarship grant, Zalameda obtained his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1987.

As a law student, he was active in extracurricular activities, being part of the Ateneo Law Journal and Ateneo Law Bulletin.

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After passing the bar examination in 1988, he entered government work as a branch clerk of the Makati City Regional Trial Court (RTC).

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He had a brief stint in private practice starting 1990, but returned to public service in 1995.

By 2002, he was named city prosecutor of Mandaluyong at 39.

In 2009, then-President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed Zalameda as associate justice of the appellate court, where he served for more than a decade.

He became the chairperson of the CA’s 17th Division.

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Ten years later, then-President Rodrigo Duterte appointed him to the SC, the first to have undergone a written examination for the position. 

Zalameda is the most senior Duterte appointee among the other shortlisted candidates who were nominated to succeed outgoing Chief Justice Alexander Gsemundo as he is set to retire on Nov. 6 upon reaching the age of 70. 

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Zalameda was among the justices who dissented from the main ruling on unprogrammed appropriations in the national budget under the Marcos Jr. administration.

He argued that Congress was not barred from proposing new programs, activities and projects that were absent from the National Expenditure Program submitted by the executive branch.

He also authored the Supreme Court decision acquitting former first lady Imelda R. Marcos of seven counts of graft, reversing a November 2018 Sandiganbayan ruling that had sentenced her to prison terms totaling as much as 77 years.

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In defending the importance of judicial procedure, Zalameda stressed that rules on the sufficiency of allegations, admissibility of evidence and evidentiary weight could not be disregarded simply because a case attracted intense public interest. /gsg