Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo will meet for the first time today, Thursday, the members of the board of trustees of the Philippine Judiciary Academy, the education arm of the Supreme Court.
The meeting, which will be conducted online via video conferencing starting at 10 a.m., will also be the last session with the board by retired SC Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna, who has served PHILJA as chancellor since 2009.
Under Republic Act No. 8557 or the PHILJA law, Chief Justice Gesmundo is ex-officio chairperson of the academy.
Earlier, the SC appointed retired SC Associate Justice Arturo Brion as the successor of Azcuna, whose term of office ends on May 31.
Brion is expected to assume the chancellor’s post starting June 1.
PHILJA was created by the SC in 1996. In 1998, it got its mandate under RA 8557 which institutionalized the academy as “training school for justices, judges, court personnel, lawyers, and aspirants to judicial posts.”
The academy has a governing board known as board of trustees which is composed of the Chief Justice as ex-officio chairman; senior associate justice as ex-officio vice chairman; the chancellor of the academy; the presiding justices of the Court of Appeals (CA), Sandiganbayan, and Court of Tax Appeals (CTA), the Court Administrator, the president of the Philippine Judges Association (PJA), and the president of the Philippine Association of Law Schools (PALS), as ex-officio members; and a judge of a first-level court, as an appointive member.
Besides Gesmundo and Azcuna, also expected to attend today’s meeting are Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas Bernabe, CA Presiding Justice Remedios Salazar Fernando, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje Tang, CTA Presiding Justice Roman G. Del Rosario, Court Administrator Jose Midas P. Marquez, PJA President Felix P. Reyes, PALS President Marisol DL. Anenias, and Judge Crislyn Pangindian Sancho.
Also expected to attend as resource persons are retired SC Associate Justice Jose C. Vitug, senior professor; retired SC Associate Justice Mariano C. Del Castillo, vice chancellor; Mona Lisa V. TiongsonTabora, chief of Philippine Mediation Center; Thelma A. Ponferrada, chief of academic affairs; Sedfrey M. Candelaria, chief of research, publications and linkages; Elmer DG Eleria, chief of office for
administration; and Romulo A. Abancio, chief of the training center; and Marina L. Buzon, executive secretary.
PHILJA’s notice of meeting did not include the agenda for discussions.
