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

This batch of new applicants is composed of big names, like COA chairperson Gamaliel Cordoba and Sandiganbayan chief Geraldine Faith Econg, among others

AT A GLANCE

• President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will appoint his second Supreme Court associate justice in November to replace retiring Justice Amy Lazaro Javier.
• There are 19 applicants for the position, primarily consisting of incumbent government officials, with new candidates recently interviewed.

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First of 2 parts

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. This 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 new candidates vying to replace Associate Justice Lazaro Javier below.

1. Aldwin Alegre

• Deputy Commissioner, Bureau of Immigration (BI)
• Appointed by former president Rodrigo Duterte to the BI in January 2019, replacing former Commission on Elections (Comelec) commissioner Aimee Torrefranca Neri.
• Admitted to the Bar on April 30, 2007, with Roll No. 53915.
• He is a Certified Public Accountant (CPA).
• Inside the BI, he sat as Bids and Awards Committee chairperson, and then as head of the bureau’s COVID-19 Task Force.
• Alegre is also a movie producer, and as he calls himself, a cameo actor.
• In 2022, a Manila Bulletin article identified him as president and chief executive officer of AQ Prime, a streaming and entertainment platform.
• Alegre is the producer of the film “Nelia,” a suspense and thriller movie starring Wynwyn Marquez. It was an entry to the 2021 Metro Manila Film Festival.
• Alegre’s AQ Prime is also behind the P-pop group, “Bilib.”

2. Jason Barlis

• Chairperson, Legal Education Board (LEB).
• LEB is a government agency mandated to oversee the country’s legal education and system, as well as to supervise and accredit law schools in the Philippines.
• Barlis is a senior partner at Oracion Barlis and Associates law firm.
• According to his profile, he is also a certified public accountant and had served at Saint Louis University (SLU) in Baguio City in different capacities.
• He was SLU’s vice president for administration from 2016 to 2020, then as dean of SLU School of Law from 2014 to 2016. Barlis was also the former head of SLU’s Department of Remedial Law and Legal Ehics, as well as the Department of Commercial and Taxation Laws.
• Barlis has taught Taxation, Commercial, and Remedial Laws.
• The LEB chairperson is an alumnus of SLU through and through.
• He obtained his accountancy degree from the university, graduating cum laude. He became a CPA in 1997. He obtained his law degree from SLU and graduated cum laude and class valedictorian.
• Barlis was admitted to the Bar in May 2002, with Roll No. 46627.
• While taking up law, Barlis worked as a court legal researcher at La Trinidad, Benguet Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 62.
• As a lawyer, Barlis has handled cases that range from civil, criminal, administrative, labor, and even corporate and tax.

3. Lily Biton

• Current Court of Appeals (CA) 21st Division chairperson. Appointed to the appellate court by Duterte on July 10, 2019.
• Biton, according to her profile from the Central Philippine University (CPU) based in Iloilo City, started her career as a senior lawyer, court attorney, and executive clerk of court at the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan.
• In 2009, she was picked as presiding judge of San Mateo-Rodriguez, Rizal RTC Branch 77.
• Biton earned her biology degree in 1982 and then her law degree in 1986 from CPU. She also earned 33 units of Master of Laws from the University of Santo Tomas.
• According to her profile, she received awards such as the Chief Justice Award for Outstanding Service in the Judiciary, the Distinguished Centralian Award in Government Service/Judiciary, and the Most Outstanding Alumna Award of the CPU College of Arts and Science, among others.
• She also does volunteer work for the Correctional Institution for Women in Mandaluyong City. The CA associate justice is also a musician and song writer who is behind the lyrics of the Sandiganbayan hymn.

4. Geraldine Faith Econg

• Presiding Justice of the Sandiganbayan. President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. appointed her on January 7, 2025, replacing retired presiding justice Amparo Cabotaje Tang.
• Econg has been sitting as Sandiganbayan associate justice and is currently the chairperson of the anti-graft court’s 2nd Division. The late former president Benigno Aquino III appointed her to the said court in January 2016.
• She applied for the position of Ombudsman in 2025, but ultimately lost to Ombudsman Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla. In 2014, she was shortlisted by the JBC for the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas position.
• Econg, before her Sandiganbayan stint, was the presiding judge of Cebu City RTC Branch 9. She also headed some Municipal Trial Courts in Cities.
• The SC applicant is among the Sandiganbayan justices who are part of some controversial rulings.
• In 2018, she was one of the justices who voted to acquit former senator Bong Revilla of plunder in relation to the scam. “It is an unpopular decision. I would have loved to be a heroine, that I convicted him, but at the end of the day we are bound by evidence,” Econg said after the promulgation of the ruling that freed Revilla.
• She was also among the justices who dismissed the pork barrel-related plunder case of the late former senator Juan Ponce Enrile in 2024.
• Econg also authored the ruling that dismissed the last six coconut levy cases against late tyrant Ferdinand E. Marcos, former first lady Imelda Marcos, Enrile, businessmen Cesar Zalamea and Jesus Pineda, and the heirs of former Zamboanga mayor Maria Clara Lobregat.

5. Gamaliel Cordoba

• Current chairperson of the Commission on Audit. He was appointed by Marcos in October 2022.
• He is a member of Fraternal Order of Utopia. Served as an undersecretary at the Office of the Presidential Adviser on Political Affairs, under the Office of the President. He also used to work as a board member of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation.
• Cordoba is a long-time commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission (NTC), having served since the administration of former president Gloria Arroyo in 2009. In 2016, under Duterte, he was able to retain his post in the commission.
• It was under him when the Duterte government pushed for the shutdown of media giant ABS-CBN.
• Under Cordoba, the Duterte government also pushed for the blocking of the website of alternative news site Bulatlat. Before the end of Duterte’s term, then national security adviser Hermogenes Esperon Jr. requested “Philippine Internet Service Providers to block access” to several sites, including Bulatlat. The alternative media’s website was later unblocked after the news site won against the NTC and Esperon in court.
• A Rappler investigation revealed that Cordoba is married to Monica Elena Cordoba, whose family partly owns the commercial fishing company Mercidar Fishing Corporation. In 2024, the SC affirmed the decision of a Malabon court allowing Mercidar to fish within municipal waters, an area usually designated for small fisherfolk.
• Under Cordoba, the NTC did not issue service identity numbers essential for the system that tracks commercial vessels at sea.

6. Solomon Hermosura

• Government Corporate Counsel since March 4, 2024.
• Before his stint at the Office of the Government Corporate Counsel (OGCC), Hermosura worked for 28 years under the Ayala Group. The OGCC is the principal law office of government-owned and controlled corporations, government instrumentalities with corporate powers, and government corporate entities.
• He held the following positions under Ayala Corporation: senior managing director, chief legal officer, group head of corporate governance, corporate secretary, compliance officer, and data protection officer.
• Hermosura also worked as group general counsel and corporate secretary of Ayala Land, corporate secretary and management committee member of Manila Water Company, and corporate secretary of Globe Telecom, ACEN Corporation, AREIT, Integrated Micro-Electronics, and Ayala Foundation.
• He worked for nine years as a private lawyer under Roco, Buñag, Kapunan, Migallos & Jardeleza law firm, before joining the Ayala Group.
• Hermosura finished his law studies at the San Beda College of Law and as valedictorian of class 1986. He placed third during the 1986 Bar Examinations. He also taught at San Beda from 1987 to 2000, and then from 2018 to 2023.
• During the 2024 Bar Examinations chaired by retired Associate Justice Mario Lopez, Hermosura sat as one of the examiners for Commercial and Taxation Laws.
• Hermosura also represented the OGCC during the oral arguments at the SC on the PhilHealth fund transfer issue.

7. German Lichauco II

• Senior Partner at Siguion Reyna, Montecillo, and Ongsiako Law Offices.
• According to his profile at his law firm, Lichauco’s areas of expertise are the following: heinous crimes, medical malpractice, construction and commercial arbitration, personal injuries, and business tort.
• Currently, he’s a member of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Makati Chapter and the Aquila Legis Fraternity.
• Lichauco also sits as a director and corporate secretary of the following companies: Hereaus Electronic Materials Philippines, Inc., Casa Cebuana, Inc., Cebu Figueroa Estate Corporation, and Coco Properties, Inc.
• He is serving as compliance officer of Medical Doctors, Inc., the company that manages Makati Medical Center Hospital. He is also the corporate secretary of Orca Energy, Inc., a power corporation owned by RollsRoyce Power Ventures Limited, and Island Power Corporation. 
• Lichauco earned his law degree from Ateneo with honors in 1991. He was admitted to the Bar in 1993, with Roll No. 38552.
• The aspiring SC justice was part of the defense team of the late former chief justice Renato Corona during his 2012 impeachment trial.
• In 2023, Marcos named Lichauco as director of the Maharlika Investment Corporation (MIC), which governs the country’s first sovereign wealth fund. Lichauco’s name is no longer included in the list of MIC directors as of writing.

8. Ernesto Maceda Jr.

• Current commissioner of the Commission on Elections, with a fixed term of seven years (2022 to 2027). Appointed by Marcos to his position in October 2022.
• He is the son of the late former Senate president Ernesto Maceda, who served as executive secretary of Marcos Jr.’s father, late dictator Ferdinand E. Marcos.
• At age 23, he was elected Manila City councilor in 1987. Five years later, at 28, he became the city’s vice mayor.
• He also worked as chief of staff to former House speaker Arnulfo Fuentebella.
• Maceda also has experience working under the judiciary. He was appointed by the SC to the Mandatory Continuing Legal Education Governing Board, and served as Board of Trustees of the Philippine Judicial Academy.
• The aspiring SC justice also taught in law school. He was the longest-serving dean of the Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila (PLM), and later served as PLM’s executive vice president. He served as president of the Philippine Association of Law Schools, and as president of Universidad de Manila from 2015 to 2019.
• He has been teaching constitutional law since 1990. He has taught in several schools, namely, Ateneo, PLM, Far Eastern University, and Arellano University.
• Maceda obtained his political science degree from University of the Philippines Diliman, then his law degree from Ateneo. He also obtained his Master of Laws degree from Columbia University in 1996. – Rappler.com

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