DIPOLOG CITY, March 27 (PIA) – Former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. is slated to arrive here this week to serve as the keynote speaker during 66th commencement exercises of the Andres Bonifacio College (ABC) come Wednesday.
The former chief magistrate will talk on the theme, “The Judiciary’s Critical Role in Upholding Good Governance,” before the graduating class of said school.
According to the statement issued by ABC’s Alumni and Public Affairs Office, it is very timely that the former chief justice will delve on that theme as the Philippine Senate is in the process of hearing the impeachment case against Chief Justice Renato Corona.
It can be recalled that Davide was appointed by President Benigno Simeon C. Aquino III to head the Truth Commission, an investigative body supposedly tasked to probe on the wrongdoings of the previous administration.
The Supreme Court declared the Truth Commission unconstitutional, however.
Davide had served the government both as elective and appointive official. He got elected as a member of the Constitutional Convention (CONCON) representing the 4th district of Cebu during the administration of former President Ferdinand E. Marcos.
After the EDSA I people power revolution in 1986, the late President Corazon C. Aquino appointed him to the 50-man Philippine Constitutional Commission which drafted the 1986 Constitution. He also served as chairman of the Commission on Elections (COMELEC) before his appointment as associate justice to the Supreme Court (SC).
Former President Joseph Estrada appointed Davide as Chief Justice before EDSA II broke out in 2001.
The former Chief Justice was also appointed as Permanent Representative of the Philippines to the United Nations right after his retirement from the SC by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from 2007 to 2010.
He received various awards such as the Knight Grand Cross of the pontifical Order of St. Sylvester in 2011, one of the highest honors conferred by the Roman Catholic Church; the Ramon Magsaysay Award, the Asian equivalent of Nobel Prize for government service; outstanding Filipino award and many others. (MO/FPG/PIA-Zamboanga del Norte)