Chief Justice

The Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines (Filipino :

Punong Mahistrado ng Kataas-taasang Hukuman ng Pilipinas ) presides over the

Supreme Court of the Philippines and is the highest judicial officer of the

government of the Philippines . The incumbent Chief Justice is Maria Lourdes

Sereno, who was appointed by

President Benigno Aquino III on August 24, 2012. [1]

Duties and powers

The power to appoint the Chief Justice lies with the President , who makes the
selection from a list of three nominees prepared by the Judicial and Bar Council .
There is no material difference in the process of selecting a Chief Justice from that
in the selection of

Associate Justices . As with the other Justices of the Supreme Court, the Chief
Justice is obliged to retire upon reaching the age of 70, otherwise there is no term
limit for the Chief Justice. In the 1935 constitution, any person appointed by the
president has to be confirmed by the Commission on Appointments ; in the 1973
constitution, the person whom the president has appointed won't have to go
confirmation under the Commission on Appointments.

The Constitution does not ascribe any formal role to the Chief Justice other than
as an ex-officio Chairman of the Judicial and Bar Council and as the presiding
officer in any impeachment trial of the President. The Chief Justice is also required
to personally certify every decision that is rendered by the Court. He or she
carries only 1 vote out of 15 in the Court, and is generally regarded, vis-a-vis the
other Justices, as the primus inter pares rather than as the administrative superior
of the other members of the Court.

Still, the influence a Chief Justice may bear within the Court and judiciary, and on
the national government cannot be underestimated. In the public eye, any
particular Supreme Court is widely identified with the identity of the incumbent
Chief Justice, hence appellations such as "The Fernando Court" or "The Puno
Court". Moreover, the Chief Justice usually retains high public visibility, unlike the
Associate Justices who tend to labor in relative anonymity, with exceptions such
as Associate Justice J. B. L. Reyes in the 1950s to 1970s.

By tradition, it is also the Chief Justice who swears into office the President of the
Philippines. One notable deviation from that tradition came in 1986, and later
again in 2010. Due to the exceptional political circumstances culminating in the
People Power Revolution , on February 25, 1986,

Corazon Aquino took her oath of office as President before then Associate Justice
Claudio Teehankee in San Juan just minutes before Ferdinand Marcos took his
own oath of office also as President before Chief Justice Ramon Aquino . Marcos
fled into exile later that night. More than two decades afterwards, Benigno
Simeon Aquino III followed in his mother's footsteps (with almost similar reasons)
by having then Associate Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales (now the incumbent
Ombudsman) swear him in, rather than then Chief Justice Renato Corona (who
was eventually impeached halfway through Aquino's term). 6 years later, in 2016,
Rodrigo Duterte was sworn into office by Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, his
classmate at San Beda College of Law , instead of Chief Justice Maria Lourdes
Sereno.

And the Chief Justice is the chief executive officer of the Philippine Judiciary
system and together with the whole Supreme Court, exercises administrative
supervision over all courts and personnel.