Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed the head of the Commission on Audit, Gamaliel Cordoba, as an associate justice of the Supreme Court, the presidential office announced on Friday.
Cordoba is to succeed Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier, who is due to retire on 16 November when she reaches the compulsory retirement age of 70. The announcement was made by presidential communications undersecretary Claire Castro at a briefing on 13 November.
The appointment moves Cordoba from an institution responsible for examining public finances to the country’s highest court. Castro said she had not yet been informed who would succeed him as chair of the audit commission. It was not immediately clear when Cordoba would take his oath or begin sitting on the court.
A separate vacancy
Cordoba was one of 11 people on the Judicial and Bar Council’s shortlist for Lazaro-Javier’s seat. The council submitted the list to the president on 29 October after public interviews for the position earlier in the month.
The list included judges from the Court of Appeals and the Court of Tax Appeals, as well as the solicitor general and a commissioner from the election authority. The council’s role is to recommend candidates for judicial vacancies; under the Constitution, the president appoints Supreme Court members from its list.
The court is composed of a chief justice and 14 associate justices. Its constitutional responsibilities include hearing cases concerning the validity of laws and reviewing certain decisions of lower courts. Justices may sit together as a full court or in divisions, depending on the matter.
The appointment is separate from Marcos’s choice earlier in November of Rodil Zalameda as chief justice. Zalameda succeeded Alexander Gesmundo, while Cordoba was chosen for the associate justice position associated with Lazaro-Javier’s retirement.
Work at the audit commission
Marcos appointed Cordoba to lead the Commission on Audit in October 2022. The Constitution gives the commission responsibility for examining and auditing government revenue, expenditure and the use of public funds and property. Its work covers government bodies and, under specified conditions, other organisations receiving public support.
During Cordoba’s tenure, the commission examined flood-control projects amid allegations of irregularities in public infrastructure spending. At a Senate budget hearing earlier this year, he said the commission had completed 50 fraud audit reports on flood-control projects and submitted them to the Office of the Ombudsman.
Cordoba said the Ombudsman’s office had used audit findings in preliminary investigations and cases. The submission of an audit report is not itself a finding of criminal guilt. He also said commission auditors had served as witnesses in investigations and court proceedings concerning the projects.
At his public interview for the court vacancy, Cordoba pointed to experience in government agencies and bodies exercising quasi-judicial functions. He said that background would help him deal with cases involving public institutions and regulatory bodies.
He also expressed support for continuing efforts to digitise court operations and make justice more accessible. Among the ideas he raised were making court decisions available in Filipino and using online video to explain decisions affecting ordinary people.
Regulatory career
Before joining the audit commission, Cordoba led the National Telecommunications Commission from 2009 to 2022. His time in the role spanned four presidential administrations, beginning under Gloria Macapagal Arroyo and continuing under Benigno Aquino III, Rodrigo Duterte and Marcos.
During that period, the telecommunications regulator ordered a major television and radio broadcaster to stop operating after its congressional franchise expired in 2020. A committee of the House of Representatives later rejected the broadcaster’s application for renewal. Civil liberties and press-freedom advocates criticised the closure as a threat to freedom of expression.
Cordoba had earlier worked in the Office of the President and served on the board of the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corporation. Before entering government, he worked in private legal practice and as a tax lawyer.
He studied economics and law at Ateneo de Manila University, completing his law degree in 1996 and passing the Philippine Bar examination the following year. He has also served as an external auditor of the International Labour Organisation.
