Duterte promotes CA Justice Amy Javier to SC

President Rodrigo Duterte has elevated Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier, who once said that the chief executive was not an enemy of women, to the Supreme Court (SC).

Javier was picked by the President to succeed retired Associate Justice Noel Tijam, who left the SC in January, according to Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea on Wednesday. Malacañang has yet to release Javier's appointment papers. 

Javier had served as assistant solicitor general for 13 years before she was appointed CA justice in 2007. She obtained her law degree from the University of Santo Tomas where she graduated class valedictorian in 1982.

She has been teaching political law, commercial law, civil law and remedial law subjects since 1983.

"Associate Justice Javier is a welcome addition to the high court with her vast legal experience in the government which spans for more than three decades," presidential spokesperson Salvador Panelo said in a statement.

"We are confident that Associate Justice Javier, as a new guardian of the rule of law, would display a high degree of competence, integrity and independence during her stint at the Supreme Court," he said.

Javier said Duterte was a supporter and defender of women when asked during a public interview of SC justice applicants in June last year if she believed Duterte's “predilection for male appointees” would affect her chances of getting the job.

"I do not see the President as an enemy of women. I see him as a person who respects and loves his late mother, who he credits to have unconditionally loved him and brought out the leader that he is," Javier told the screening body Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

"I would like to see him as a father who cares for his daughters, a person who founded several shelters around the Philippines for abused women and for girls who are victims of incest rape."

She is also in favor of changing the country's form of government to federalism, arguing that it will improve the economy and judicial system in the country. 

Duterte has been pushing for a shift to a federal form of government as a means to address national economic and power imbalances.

Javier, who had been shortlisted several times for the position, beat out nine other nominees who went through screening by the JBC headed by Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin.

They included CA Associate Justices Manuel Barrios, Japar Dimaampao, Ramon Cruz, Ramon Garcia, Mario Lopez and Apolinario Bruselas Jr., Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, SC Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez and former Ateneo de Manila University law dean Cesar Villanueva.

Duterte has yet to fill the SC justice's seat vacated by Bersamin when he was appointed chief justice in November last year. — RSJ/ LDF, GMA News