PRESIDENT Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has appointed Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr. as presiding justice of the Court of Appeals (CA).
Reyes has by-passed perennial candidate Associate Justice Portia Alino-Hormachuelos, who was the most senior justice in the appellate court.
Supreme Court (SC) administrator and spokesman Jose Midas Marquez on Sunday confirmed Reyes’s appointment.
Reyes was appoinetd last Friday and will be taking his oath before Chief Justice Reynato Puno on Monday, added Marquez.
“We got the transmittal letter from the Palace late Friday afternoon,” he said.
Hormachuelos has been vying for the position of CA presiding justice and also a slot in the high court but was not quite able to get the nod of the members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) into submitting her name to the President.
Reyes who now is chairman of the appellate court’s second division took his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University.
Prior to his appointment as CA presiding justice, Reyes also vied for a vacancy in the SC.
Reyes completed his elementary and secondary education at La Salle, Greenhills. As an undergraduate, he studied economics at De La Salle University, the University of California at Berkeley, and Saint Mary's College, California.
After law school, he took his Master’s degree for Public Administration from the Philippine Women's University. He also participated in the Top Management Program of the Asian Institute of Management.
While still a law student, Reyes worked as the private secretary of his father, former Presiding Justice Andres C. Reyes, Sr. of the CA. A third-generation justice, he is the grandson of former Justice Alex C. Reyes of the SC.
After graduating from law school and passing the bar examinations in 1978, he worked as prosecutor and later as Chief Legal Officer of the Office of the Tanodbayan.
He was appointed Judge of the Metropolitan Trial Court, Branch 61, Makati, Metro Manila in 1987 and Judge of the Regional Trial Court, Branch 75, San Mateo, Rizal in 1990. He was promoted Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals in 1999.
Among Reyes’ notable decisions was the dismissal of a petition questioning the 2007 ruling of the Pasig City RTC which recognized the Filipino citizenship of Sandiganbayan Justice Gregory Ong under the 1987 Constitution.
Reyes also penned the decision upholding the legality of the Government Service Insurance System’s purchase of a Juan Luna and two Fernando Amorsolo paintings for P53.5 million in October 20002; and a decision declaring invalid an ordinance passed by the Batangas City government requiring all heavy industries along the Batangas bay and other areas declared as heavy industries zone to construct desalination plant and prohibits the use of underground fresh water for cooling system.
In January 2006, the SC dismissed a complaint filed by a group of students of the Philippine National Police Academy against Reyes for violation of Rule 1.02 of Canon 1 of the Code of Judicial Conduct for failing to resolve their suit with dispatch.
The case is an offshoot of a case filed with the CA for the issuance of a temporary restraining order and/or writ of preliminary injunction sought by complainants and 452 others against then DILG Secretary, Senator Alfredo Lim, Philippine Public Safety College (PPSC) president Dr. Ernesto Gimenez, and PNPA Director Dr. Dionisio Coloma Jr. (ECV/Sunnex)