Part 2: Old-timer bets in the running to be Marcos’ 2nd SC justice

These bets are part of the list of candidates who vied for the justice post in 2025 that ultimately went to Associate Justice Raul Villanueva

Last of 2 parts
Part 1: New candidates in the running to be Marcos’ 2nd SC justice

President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will pick his second Supreme Court (SC) associate justice appointee in November.

This is for the position that will be vacated by Associate Justice Amy Lazaro Javier, who is set to retire on November 16. The magistrate will be Marcos’ second appointee to the High Court after Associate Justice Raul Villanueva in 2025.

So far, there are 19 applicants in total, majority of whom are incumbent government officials.

The Judicial and Bar Council, tasked to screen the candidates and submit a short list of nominees to Marcos, divided the bets into two categories.

New applicants attended the public interviews on October 13 and 15, while the old bets no longer took part in the event because their past interviews are still valid.

Get to know the old-timer bets vying to replace Associate Justice Lazaro Javier below.

9. Nina Antonio Valenzuela

• Current Court of Appeals (CA) associate justice and chairperson of the 6th Division.
• Appointed to the CA on March 11, 2010, and set to retire from the judiciary on December 13, 2033.
• She served as presiding judge of Metropolitan Trial Court Branch 30 in 2000, and then was promoted in the same court as its first vice executive judge.
• Antonio Valenzuela was appointed in 2005 as Presiding Judge of Manila Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 28. She was later recognized as outstanding RTC judge of Manila.
• She previously taught at Saint Scholastica’s College and Adamson University. The CA justice was also part of the SC applicants in 2014, 2020, and 2025.
• She was part of the CA division, which upheld the dismissal of the case against journalist Lady Ann Salem and trade unionist Rodrigo Esparago, both of whom were arrested when former president Rodrigo Duterte targeted progressives. 

10. Ramon Bato Jr.

• Current CA associate justice and chairperson of the Second Division.
• Bato is the second most senior justice in the appellate court, next to Presiding Justice Fernanda Lampas Peralta. He was appointed to the CA on March 15, 2004, and will retire from the judiciary on August 27, 2028.
• He obtained his law degree from Silliman University. Before his CA appointment, Bato was a court attorney in the SC and served as a trial court judge in Imus, Cavite, and in Dumaguete City.
• While in the SC, he co-founded the Supreme Court Assembly of Lawyer-Employees and was elected as its first vice president and later as president. 
• Bato wrote the decision that dismissed the double murder case against former national police chief and senator Panfilo “Ping” Lacson in the Dacer-Corbito case.
• He was also part of the CA division that upheld the cyber libel conviction of Nobel Peace Prize laureate and Rappler CEO Maria Ressa and former Rappler researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. in 2022
• The CA justice was also among the SC applicants in 2011, 2017, and 2025.

11. Darlene Marie Berberabe

• Current Solicitor General who oversees the Office of the Solicitor General, the government’s primary legal counsel. Appointed by Marcos to the position in May 2025.
• Former dean of the University of the Philippines (UP) College of Law.
• Prior to her deanship appointment in November 2023, she was the former chief executive officer of the Pag-IBIG fund. 
• Previously, Berberabe was a senior lecturer at the UP College of Law, and a professorial lecturer on jurisprudence and legal philosophy at the Philippine Judicial Academy.
• She obtained her philosophy degree from UP, graduating summa cum laude and class valedictorian of the College of Social Sciences and Philosophy in 1989. She became the first female instructor of philosophy in UP. Berberabe was also the salutatorian of her UP law class in 1999.
• Philippine Basketball Association legend Avelino “Samboy” Lim, who passed away in December 2023, was her husband.
• In March this year, the OSG filed a position with the SC asking for the acquittal of Rappler CEO and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Maria Ressa and former researcher Reynaldo Santos Jr. in their Duterte-time cyber libel case.
• Under Berberabe too, the SC put an end to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s shutdown order against Rappler. This was because the OSG no longer pursued appealing the case.

12. Ramon Cruz

• CA associate justice and chairperson of the 3rd Division.
• A native of Bicol.
• He was appointed to the CA on November 05, 2009, and will retire from the judiciary on August 25, 2027.
• Cruz concurred in the CA decision that voided a 2018 shutdown order against Rappler by the SEC, and ordered the restoration of the news organization’s certificate of incorporation.
• He also concurred in the CA decision that sentenced US Marine Joseph Scott Pemberton to a maximum of 10 years in prison for killing transwoman Jennifer Laude in 2014.

13. Maria Elisa Sempio Diy

• CA associate justice and chairperson of the 9th Division.
• Appointed to the CA on February 22, 2012, and will retire from the judiciary on April 25, 2036.
• Sempio Diy is the daughter of former CA justice Alicia Sempio-Diy, a known family law expert.
• She earned her psychology degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1986, and then her law degree from San Beda University later on. She ranked third in her graduating class.
• Before her CA appointment, Sempio Diy served as Quezon City RTC judge from 2005 to 2012, and then as Municipal Trial Court judge in Quezon City from 2001 to 2005.
• In 2015, it was Sempio-Diy who penned the CA decision that said the Metropolitan Manila Development Authority has no power to implement its anti-smoking campaign.
• She is the ponente of the CA ruling that approved the phase out of 15-year-old buses in 2016. She also concurred in the CA ruling that stopped a Manila court order that questioned the Philippine-US extradition treaty.

14. Myra Garcia Fernandez

• CA associate justice and chairperson of the 4th Division.
• She was appointed to the CA on March 11, 2010, and will retire from the judiciary on June 24, 2033.
• She served as examiner for Ethics and Practical Exercises during the 2016 Bar Examinations.
• Garcia Fernandez is the ponente of the ruling that affirmed the dismissal of over 200 Coke employees in 2014.
• In 2018, Garcia Fernandez wrote the CA ruling that denied the petition filed by a cop who’s a supect in the killing of South Korean businessman Jee Ick-joo. The cop sought to reverse the ruling of the Angeles City, Pampanga Regional Trial Court that granted the motion to discharge one of the co-accused in the case and turn him into a state witness.
• She also concurred in the the CA ruling that affirmed the ban on field trials of genetically-modified eggplant in the country.

15. Fernanda Lampas Peralta

• Current CA presiding justice and chairperson of the First Division.
• She was appointed to the CA on February 9, 2004, and will retire from the judiciary on June 16, 2030.
• She is the wife of former chief justice Diosdado Peralta. They have four children.
• Lampas Peralta earned her law degree from San Beda University in 1984.
• She worked in the corporate world as a certified public accountant and lawyer, before working under the Office of the Solicitor General in 1986.
• Lampas Peralta is among the justices who concurred in the CA decision that denied the application for protective writs of red-tagged environmental activists Jonila Castro and Jhed Tamano.
• In 2013, she also concurred in the CA ruling that affirmed its decision clearing former Palawan governor Joel Reyes in the 2011 killing of broadcaster and environmentalist Gerry Ortega. The SC ordered Reyes’ rearrest in 2023, and the suspect has been under custody since September 2024.
• During chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno’s bout with her quo warranto case, Sereno aimed for the exclusion of then-associate justice Diosdado Peralta and three other justices in her case. Sereno claimed the then-associate justice had bias because he believed it was Sereno who decided to exclude Lampas Peralta from the list of applicants for CA presiding justice in 2017. Sereno claimed Peralta himself said this in at least two impeachment hearings. 

16. Ronaldo Roberto Martin

• Current CA associate justice, chairperson of the 12th Division.
• Appointed to the CA on May 13, 2015, and will retire from the judiciary on October 08, 2034.
• He had previously applied for the SC associate justice post.
• Martin is the ponente of the CA decision that affirmed the Office of the Ombudsman’s ruling to perpetually bar former Makati mayor Jejomar Erwin “Junjun” Binay Jr. from holding office over irregularities in the P1.3-billion Makati Science High School building project.
• He is also the ponente of the CA decision that ordered the reinstatement and the award of full back wages and benefits of GMA Network’s 51 workers fired for protesting their non-regularization.

17. Karl Miranda

• Current Sandiganbayan associate justice, chairperson of the Third Division. Appointed to the anti-graft court on January 20, 2016, and will retire from the judiciary on October 9, 2027.
• He earned his business management degree from the Ateneo de Manila University, and his law degree from the UP College of Law. He holds a master’s degree in public administration from the John F. Kennedy School of Government in Harvard University.
• He joined the Office of the Solicitor General in 1986, and was appointed Assistant Solicitor General in 1999, heading the Sedfrey A. Ordoñez Division. Under the OSG, he worked on big ticket cases like Sarah Balabagan’s appeal and the Flor Contemplacion case.
• He also taught persons deprived of liberty inside the New Bilibid Prison studying to complete their degrees while detained.
• At the Sandiganbayan, he was involved in many cases. He concurred in the anti-graft court’s ruling that affirmed the conviction of former Maguindanao governor Datu Sajid Ampatuan on 130 criminal cases. He also voted in favor of affirming Ampatuan’s graft and malversation conviction involving P400 million in public funds meant for farm-to-market roads in Maguindanao.
• Miranda concurred in the decision that acquitted Senator JV Ejercito of technical malversation over the alleged unlawful diversion of San Juan City’s calamity fund when Ejercito was the mayor. He also voted in 2020 in favor of the ruling that acquitted Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia in the case involving the province’s purchase of a P98.8-million property that was mostly underwater.
• His chamber is currently handling the malversation case of former senator Bong Revilla related to flood control corruption, and Senator Rodante Marcoleta’s plunder charge over his campaign finances.
• Miranda is the lone dissenter in the resolution that granted Revilla’s petition for bail. He was outvoted, paving the way for the fomer senator’s temporary freedom.

18. Walter Ong

• Current CA Associate Justice, 1st Division senior member.
• Appointed to the CA on December 12, 2017, and will retire from the judiciary on October 13, 2038.
• Before his appointment in the appellate court, he was shortlisted by the JBC for a Sandiganbayan Associate Justice post. He was also in private practice.
• Ong is the brother of former Sandiganbayan associate justice Gregory Ong, who was dismissed in 2014 over his alleged links to pork barrel-implicated Janet Napoles.
• He concurred in the CA decision that ordered the reinstatement and the award of full back wages and benefits of GMA Network’s 51 workers fired for protesting their non-regularization.

19. Maria Rowena San Pedro

• Court of Tax Appeals Associate Justice and chairperson of the 3rd Division.
• San Pedro earned her communications degree from UP, finishing cum laude, and receiving the presidential pin and student council service award in 1986. She earned her law degree from the UP College of Law in 1990, graduating in the top 20 of her batch.
• She started her career in the judiciary as court attorney in the CA, and then later in the SC. She also served as presiding judge of Pasig City Metropolitan and Regional Trial Courts (RTC), where she handled family and commercial court cases.
• In 2011, she was awarded the Judicial Excellence Award (Chief Justice Ramon Avanceña Award) and was one of the three most outstanding judges recognized by the Society for Judicial Excellence.
• San Pedro also taught law at the Ateneo de Manila University and served as Mandatory Continuing Legal Education lecturer at the UP Law Center.
• She served as Bar examiner twice: for Mercantile Law in 2019, and then for The Law Pertaining to the State and its Relationship with its Citizens in 2020/2021.
• As Pasig City judge, she handled Rappler’s securities and code case that stemmed from an anti-dummy complaint. In 2019, she inhibited herself from the case, which was later transferred to a different RTC branch.