Supreme Court aspirant Court of Appeals (CA) Justice Martin Villarama Jr. has logged the highest number of reversals by the Supreme Court in the past two years, while another aspirant, Justice Mariano del Castillo, maintained an unblemished record.

Data we obtained from the CA archives on cases decided by justices that were appealed to the SC showed that Villarama has 11 reversals so far from January 2007 to October 2008.In absolute terms, the figure is highest among the six CA justices seeking a position in the High Court.

We only looked at the records of the justices aspiring for the Supreme Court. There have been proposals in the past to include the SC reversal rate of the justices as one of the criteria to consider for membership in the High Court.

Next: Salonga, Hormachuelos

While Villarama may have logged the highest number of reversals, CA Justices Josefina Salonga and Portia Hormachuelos however, registered the highest in percentage terms.

Of Salonga’s 17 decisions that were appealed, three were reversed in 2007.

On the other hand, of the 30 appealed decisions penned by Hormachuelos, four were reversed by the SC in 2008.

Other justices who have applied for an SC post are Juan Quintos Enriquez and Remedios Salazar-Fernando.

The Judicial and Bar Council, which vets nominees to the judiciary and the Ombudsman and the Deputy Ombudsmen, is now requiring applicants from the CA
and the Sandiganbayan to submit data on their performance, from their average monthly output to their reversal rate. This is meant to assess the competence of the applicants.

Del Castillo: zero reversal

Of the six, only del Castillo managed to escape unscathed. The SC either denied motions to reverse his decision or affirmed his ruling. His zero reversal is underscored by the fact that 70 of his decisions were appealed to the SC.

In his personal data sheet submitted to the Judicial and Bar Council, del Castillo said that all his ponencias have been affirmed by the SC with only three reversals since entering the CA in 2001.

Total performance

Sought for his reaction, Villarama downplayed the number of his reversals in the past two years. He said he has performed better in the previous years and that a justice’s performance should be assessed in its totality.

For instance, in 2005, Villarama said that of the 106 appealed decisions, only two were reversed by the High Court. In 2006, 29 of his appealed decisions were not reversed by the SC.

Villarama provided us with documents to back up the figures he cited. The data were prepared by the CA’s Information and Statistical Division.

He said that since joining the appellate court in 1998, he has penned 1,964 decisions.

Villarama is one of the CA justices with the highest disposal rate and a member of the zero-backlog committee.