Normally, Supreme Court justices are looked upon as a revered set of gruff, unsmiling, cold, and unreachable demigods loftily perched on Mount Olympus. The rare time they are seen in public is during oral arguments when they don their black robes, listen to, and interrogate even the most seasoned lawyers with piercing questions, subjecting them…
In People v. Alcantara taken up last Monday in this space, the government elevated the acquittal by the Regional Trial Court (RTC) of Mandaluyong City of former senator, former secretary of justice, and now representative-elect Leila de Lima to the Court of Appeals (CA). IN CONTRAST, in People v. XXX262846 (Feb. 18, 2025, per J…
In a 12-page decision promulgated on April 30, 2025, the Eighth Division of the Court of Appeals (CA)—composed of JJs Nina G. Antonio-Valenzuela (chair), Eleuterio L. Bathan (ponente), and Florencio M. Mamauag Jr., (member)—declared “NULL AND VOID” (caps and bold fonts in original) the decision, dated May 12, 2023, of Judge Abraham Joseph B. Alcantara…
Much has been talked, broadcast, forwarded, and written about Pope Leo XIV, the first American-born, Augustinian-educated, Peruvian missionary who preferred the seminary over a law scholarship at Harvard, and who, via his words and deeds, quietly demonstrated the calling of every priest—and indeed, of every Christian—to care for the forgotten, the powerless, the outcasts, and…
My curiosity was drawn to an Inquirer item sourced from Kyodo News, that nearly 30 percent of the Japanese engaged in common-law relationships have chosen not to marry because they did not want to change their own or their partner’s name as required by Japanese law, a recent private survey has shown. Moreover, the rate…