Sandiganbayan justice is new SC magistrate

(Updated) MANILA, Philippines – Malacañang announced on Wednesday the appointment of Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Diosdado Peralta as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. Peralta will replace Ruben Reyes Jr. who retired last January 3, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said. Ermita said the Palace had already informed the Supreme Court and the Sandiganbayan about the appointment. Six other SC justices are expected to retire this year: Adolf Azcuna on Feb. 16, Dante Tinga on May 11, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago on Oct. 5, Leonardo Quisumbing on Nov. 6, Minita Chico-Nazario on Dec. 5, and Ma. Alicia A. Martinez on Dec. 19. Peralta, who joined the Sandiganbayan in 2002, was named chief of the anti-graft court on March 28, 2008, in place of Teresita De Castro who was then named as an associate justice of the Supreme Court. Like De Castro, Peralta was a member of the three-man Special Division of the Sandiganbayan that convicted former President Joseph Estrada Estrada of plunder. He has been referred to as a "hanging judge" before his appointment to the Sandiganbayan because he had sentenced to death more than 40 people as a Quezon City Regional Trial Court judge. Peralta, who finished law at the University of Santo Tomas, is the son of former Manila Court of First Instance Judge Elviro Peralta and former teacher Catalina Madardang-Peralta, and is married to Court Appeals Associate Justice Fernanda Lampas-Peralta. His father is reportedly a friend of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, after whom he was named. He first worked as a production analyst at the Cosmos Bottling Corp. in 1974 before moving up as general manager of the Ace Agro-Development Corp. The he became a legal consultant of the Metro Manila Commission in 1981 before serving as a Barangay councilor in Fairview in Quezon City. He was a member of two task forces – one that looked into tax fraud cases against former First Lady Imelda R. Marcos and another that looked into the tax deficiency of Manila. He was also a member of the Joint Legal Action Group of the Departments of National Defense, Justice, and the Interior and Local Government. After those stints he worked as assistant city prosecutor in Laoag and then in Manila. Peralta then became a judge at the Quezon City Regional Trial Court in 1994 and executive judge in 2000 before being named as associate justice of the Sandiganbayan in 2002. - GMANews.TV