De facto' vs 'de jure'

A source knowledgeable on the matter said De Castro is the first female "de
jure" chief justice, as opposed to Sereno, a "de facto" officer.

"De jure" means "by right." The SC defines a judge de jure as one exercising
his or her office as a matter of right, and was legally elected or appointed.

A "de facto"— or "in fact" — officer, on the other hand, is "one who has the
reputation or appearance of the being the officer he assumes to be but who, in
fact, under the law, has no right or title to the office he assumes to hold."

A de facto officer "holds by some color of right or title," unlike a usurper, who
intrudes upon the office without either legal title or color of right, according to
McQuillin's Law of Municipal Corporations as cited in a 1960 SC decision.

In other words, under this interpretation, De Castro is the first legally

recognized female chief justice.

However, the source said the SC en banc has yet to decide on whether or not
Sereno will be removed from the roster of Philippine chief justices.

The late former chief justice Renato Corona, who was impeached and
convicted, is still on this roster, the source told GMA News Online.

Sereno's decisions

Sereno's stint as chief justice amounted to six years' worth of judicial

decisions, among them dissenting votes on the acquittal of former president Gloria
Macapagal Arroyo on plunder charges; the burial of strongman Ferdinand Marcos at
the Libingan ng mga Bayani; and the upholding of President Rodrigo Duterte's
declaration of martial law over Mindanao.
Does her ouster mean the nullification of her decisions? The source cited the
ponencia of Associate Justice Noel Tijam on the quo warranto petition that
declared her a "de facto" chief justice.

"Thus, her decisions stand," the source said.

Abdiel Dan Fajardo, president of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, called
the "de facto" tag a legal device in order to retain Sereno's decisions.

"They have no choice. Sereno presided over the Court for six years, wrote
and voted on so many cases. They cannot be undone or declared void without
wreaking havoc on finality of judgments," Fajardo told GMA News Online.

Meanwhile, Edre Olalia, president of the National Union of Peoples' Lawyers,

said the proposition was acceptable, but seemed "self-contradictory" given the
invalidation of Sereno's appointment.

"But what is indubitable is that this mess cannot be cleaned up by sweeping

things under the rug," he said.

However, Fajardo believes the matter of the Supreme Court's first female chief
justice is not a settled issue.

"Eventually, hopefully, the system will correct it, perhaps under a Supreme
Court with a different composition," he said. —BM/JST, GMA News