Gamaliel Cordoba named Supreme Court associate justice

MANILA — President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has appointed Commission on Audit (COA) Chairman Gamaliel Cordoba as the Supreme Court’s new associate justice, Malacañang said on Friday.

Cordoba replaces Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier, who is set to retire on Nov. 16 when she reaches the judiciary’s mandatory retirement age of 70, Communications Undersecretary Claire Castro told reporters.

“Hindi pa naibibigay sa amin ang susunod na papalit sa COA chair,” she said.

Cordoba earned his Bachelor of Arts in Economics and his Juris Doctor degrees from the Ateneo de Manila University, before he passed the bar in 1997.

He worked as a part of the Siguion Reyna, Montecillo and Ongsiako law office, and the SyCip Gorres Velayo and Co firm before he entered government service in 2001.

Cordoba is also known as the “longest-serving commissioner of the National Telecommunications Commission” with his tenure spanning four administrations, Castro said.

He was eventually appointed to the COA and also served as an external auditor of the International Labour Organization and the World Trade Organization.

Cordoba leaves behind the Commission on Audit beleaguered with controversies over billions of pesos worth of discrepancies in the government’s infrastructure projects.

Cordoba was also head of the COA when one of its commissioners, Mario Lipana, was tagged in the flood control controversy.