Saturday, March 29, 2008 Peralta is new Sandiganbayan presiding justice
PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo named Sandiganbayan First Division chairman Diosdado Peralta as the new presiding justice of the anti-graft court vice Teresita de Castro who was earlier named as associate justice of the Supreme Court (SC).
Arroyo signed the appointment of Peralta on Friday, which was transmitted by Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita to SC Chief Justice Reynato Puno on the same day.
Ermita said Peralta was nominated by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).
Peralta, like de Castro, was a member of the three-man Sandiganbayan Special Division, which convicted former President Joseph Estrada of plunder.
The former Quezon City judge had been referred to as a "hanging judge" prior to his appointment to the Sandiganbayan after sentencing to death more than 40 people as a regional trial court (RTC) judge. He is even a founding member of the "Guillotine Club" which is comprised of judges that sentenced and advocated capital punishment.
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 of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Fernanda Lampas-Peralta.
His father is reportedly a friend of the late President Diosdado Macapagal, from whom he was named after.
He first worked as a production analyst of Cosmos Bottling Corporation in 1974 before moving up as general manager of Ace Agro-Development Corporation and later as legal consultant of the Metro Manila Commission in 1981 before serving as a barangay councilman in Barangay Fairview, Quezon City.
He tapped as a member of the task force that looked into tax fraud cases against former First Lady Imelda Marcos, of the Task Force on Tax Deficiency of the City of Manila and later of the Joint Legal Action Group of the defense, justice and local government departments before working as assistant city in Laoag City and later in Manila.
Peralta then became an RTC judge in Quezon City in 1994 and executive judge in 2000 before being named as associate justice of the Sandiganbayan in 2002. (JMR/Sunnex)
