Who is Chief Justice Rodil Zalameda?

Appointment to the Supreme Court, like all other appointments, is always a political decision. As long as the appointee passed the rigid screening by the Judicial and Bar Council, and his name was included among those endorsed to the president, PBBM has the sole and exclusive prerogative to choose, as he did.

The new CJ may not be the best to the minds of many, but he was the best in the perspective of the president and his closest advisers. The president is seeing many things that we, ordinary "hoi polloi" do not see. The president is considering factors beyond our comprehension. His acts enjoy the presumption of propriety and regularity. Once our leader makes a decision, we should respect it.

CJ Rodil Zalameda may not be as scholarly academician like Senior Associate Justice Mario Victor Leonen, or may not have a long and tested track record as a legal practitioner as Justice Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, but CJ Rodil has his own credentials as a pre-Law graduate of UE and Law graduate of Ateneo de Manila. CJ Rodil was a long-time prosecutor and appellate justice before his appointment to the Supreme Court by PRRD. Even if he is a Duterte appointee, he has not shown prejudice or bias in his rulings.

The new chief justice does not have any long experience as professor of Law in the mold of Chief Justices Lucas Bersamin and Diosdado Peralta. But he has a doctorate honoris causa from UE conferred a few weeks before. He was the first to experience and pass the course and exam on decision writing by the Philippine Judicial Academy. I have not seen any book authored by him, but he has done his judicial duties without much ado or fanfare.

Therefore, I find it rather highly unfair, even bordering on bad taste, to introduce the 28th Chief Justice Rodil Zalameda as the ponente who wrote that Supreme Court decision acquitting the presidential mother and former first lady Imelda Romualdez. He totally absolved Madam Imelda from her conviction for seven counts of graft with imprisonment for an aggregate of 77 years. I am sure that he has done many better things than that.

He also wrote that decision, promulgated last week declaring RA 12326 constitutional and thus dismissing for lack of merit the petition filed by top election lawyer Romulo Macalintal. That law sets the term of barangay and SK officials to be five years instead of four. Thus, the next BSK elections will still be in November 2028. His ponencia enjoyed the concurrence of the majority including the outgoing Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and retiring Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier.

Chief Justice Rodil Zalameda is not an Ilocano or a Mindanaoan. He was not a Bar topnotcher, nor has ever been a Bar examiner. He has not been known as an expert in Commercial Law and Taxation like Justice Japar Dimaampao. He has no executive experience in managing the courts like Justice Midas Marquez. CJ Rodil has no extraordinary credentials, much less a royal bloodline.

Perhaps what we need is one who thinks, dreams, and works like all of us, normal citizens. We do not need brilliant jurists who are corrupt, or learned luminaries but who are easily manipulated, pressured, or influenced by the powers-that-be, CJ Rodil Zalameda's appointment gives us hope that any average Filipino lawyer can aspire to rise to the seat of the highest magistrate of the land.