THE Supreme Court has appointed retired Associate Justice Arturo Brion as chancellor of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PhilJA), the training school for justices, judges, court personnel, lawyers, and aspirants to judicial posts.
Brion’s appointment was made in an en banc resolution dated May 11, according to a notice signed by Clerk of Court Marife Lomibao-Cuevas.
Brion, who served as SC associate justice from March 2008 to December 2016, will succeed retired Associate Justice Adolfo Azcuna who was appointed chancellor in 2009 and whose term ends on May 31.
Brion, who was labor secretary under the Arroyo administration, will serve as PhilJA chancellor for two years, though it can be extended by the SC.
PhiJA was created by the SC on March 12, 1996, under the leadership of then Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, through the issuance of Administrative Order No. 35-96.
It received its mandate on Feb. 26, 1998, through Republic Act No.
8557 or an “Act Establishing the Philippine Judicial Academy, Defining its Powers and Functions, Appropriating Funds Therefor, and for other Purposes.
Its board of trustees is composed of the Chief Justice as ex-officio chairman, and SC senior associate justice as ex-officio vice chairman. Its members are the chancellor of the academy, presiding justices of the Court of Appeals and the Sandiganbayan, the Court Administrator, the president of the Philippine Judges Association, and the president of the Philippine Association of Law Schools. A judge of a first level court is an appointive member.
