Amy Lazaro-Javier takes oath as Supreme Court justice

Erstwhile Court of Appeals (CA) justice Amy Lazaro-Javier on Thursday took her oath of office as a new associate justice of the Supreme Court (SC).

Taking over the seat vacated by retired justice Noel Tijam, Javier took her oath before Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin at a ceremony attended by former and incumbent SC justices and her family, colleagues, and staff at the Court's Session Hall in Manila.

Tijam also took his oath as the new representative of the academe in the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), the body that screens applicants to judiciary posts and recommends nominees for consideration by the president.

Javier had been assistant solicitor general for 13 years prior to her appointment to the CA in 2007. She has a law degree from the University of Santo Tomas and has been teaching political law, commercial law, civil law and remedial law since 1983.

She joins two other women on the current SC bench: Associate Justices Estela Perlas-Bernabe, who was appointed in 2011, and Rosmari Carandang, who was appointed last year.

Two other female justices have left the Court in the past year: retired chief justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro and ousted chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

When asked if she thought President Rodrigo Duterte's "predilection for male appointees" would affect her chances of getting the SC post, Javier said last June that the president was a supporter of women.

"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 JBC in a required interview.

"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 said.

Duterte has earned the ire of women's rights groups for remarks they considered misogynistic. The president has joked about rape and suggested female rebels ought to be shot in the vagina, among other controversial statements that Malacañang has routinely downplayed.

After Javier's appointment, only one SC seat remains vacant : the associate justice's post left by Bersamin when he was named chief justice last November. — RSJ, GMA News