Leyte guv takes his oath of office before Supreme Court Administrator

By Philippine Information Agency (PIA 8)
June 20, 2010

TACLOBAN CITY  –  Governor Carlos Jericho Petilla disclosed that he will take his oath of office on June 28 before Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez.

At the Harampang Ha PIA held recently at Gerry’s Grill, Governor Petilla bared that the oath taking will be conducted at 9:00 o’clock in the morning at the Provincial Capitol Terrace.

The other provincial officials to include Vice Governor Mimyet Bagulaya and the Provincial Board Members from the five Districts of Leyte, will also take their oath before the Supreme Court Administrator.

Governor Petilla intimated that several mayors and several Tacloban City councilors will also take their oath of office on the same day before the Supreme Court Administrator.

Governor Petilla who is in his third and last term as Governor of Leyte, ran unopposed in the just concluded elections.

The Supreme Court En Banc appointed Deputy Court Administrator (DCA) Jose Midas P. Marquez as the newest Court Administrator on January 26, 2010, filling the vacancy left by newly-appointed SC Justice Jose P. Perez.

Court Administrator Marquez, who took his oath of office before Chief Justice Reynato S. Puno last January 27, is, at age 43, the youngest to be appointed to the post after besting eight other applicants who were all interviewed by the Court En Banc.

He is the 15th person to be appointed to Court Administrator and now oversees the administration of all lower courts in the country. He, however, remains Spokesperson and Acting Chief of the PIO for the time being.

The new Court Administrator started his career in the SC in 1991 as a law clerk for several Justices of the SC, among whom are retired Justice Abraham F. Sarmiento, Senior Justice and former Philippine Judicial Academy Chancellor Ameurfina A. Melencio-Herrera, and Senior Justice Josue N. Bellosillo.

He later on acted as Deputy Secretary of the Senate Electoral Tribunal, detailed at the Office of the Chairman of then Senior Justices Bellosillo in 1999 and Puno in 2003.

From 1998 to 2000, he was the Project Director of the Supreme Court-United Nations Development Programme Project on Technical Assistance to the Philippine Judiciary on Justice and Development which served as the forerunner of the World Bank-assisted projects of the Court and the present Action Program for Judicial Reform of the Court.

Marquez gradually rose from the ranks until he was appointed as the Chief of Staff of the Office of Chief Justice Puno, and the Supreme Court’s second spokesperson and PIO Chief in 2007.

Marquez finished his Juris Doctor degree in 1993 at the Ateneo de Manila University, from where he also obtained his undergraduate degree in Bachelor of Arts, major in Economics in 1987.  He is also a law professor in a law school in Makati and has written several law books.