Chief Justice of the Philippines
Punong Mahistrado ng Pilipinas
Seal of the Supreme Court
Flag of the Supreme Court
Incumbent Alexander Gesmundo since April 5, 2021
Style	The Honorable(formal) Your Honor(when addressed directly in court)
Member of	Supreme Court Presidential Electoral Tribunal Judicial and Bar Council
Appointer	Presidential appointment upon nomination by theJudicial and Bar Council
Term length	Retirement at the age of 70
Inaugural holder	1583 - Santiago de Vera y Rivas, Captain-General of the Spanish East Indies (Real Audiencia, Spanish East Indies) 1901 -Cayetano Arellano (Supreme Court of the Philippines)
Formation	June 11, 1901
Website	Official Website

Chief Justice of the Philippines (Filipino:Punong Mahistrado ng Pilipinas) is the title of the person who presides over theSupreme Court of the Philippines and who is the highest judicial officer of thegovernment. As of April 5, 2021, the position is currently held byAlexander Gesmundo, who was appointed by then presidentRodrigo Duterte following theearly retirement of his predecessor,Diosdado Peralta, in March 2021.

The chief justice, who was first named on June 11, 1901, in the person ofCayetano Arellano, is the oldest existing major governmental office continually held by a Filipino, preceding the presidency and vice presidency (1935), senators (1916, or as theTaft Commission, on September 1, 1901) and the members of the House of Representatives (1907 as thePhilippine Assembly).

The power to appoint the chief justice lies with thepresident of the Philippines, who makes the selection from a list of three nominees prepared by theJudicial and Bar Council. There is no material difference in the process of selecting a chief justice from that in the selection ofassociate justices. As with the other justices of the Supreme Court, the chief justice is obliged to retire upon reaching the age of 70; otherwise there is no term limit for the chief justice. In the 1935 constitution, any person appointed by the president has to be confirmed by theCommission on Appointments; in the 1973 constitution, the person whom the president appointed did not have to undergo confirmation under the Commission on Appointments.

Thecurrent 1987 constitution does not ascribe any formal role to the chief justice other than as anex-officio chairman of the Judicial and Bar Council and as the presiding officer in anyimpeachment trial of the president. The chief justice is also required to personally certify every decision that is rendered by the court. The chief justice carries only 1 vote out of 15 in the court, and is generally regarded, vis-a-vis the other justices, as theprimus inter pares rather than as the administrative superior of the other members of the court.

Still, the influence a chief justice may bear within the court and judiciary, and on the national government cannot be underestimated. In the public eye, any particular Supreme Court is widely identified with the identity of the incumbent chief justice, hence appellations such as "The Fernando Court" or "The Puno Court". Moreover, the chief justice usually retains high public visibility, unlike the associate justices, who tend to labor in relative anonymity, with exceptions such as Associate JusticeJ. B. L. Reyes in the 1950s to 1970s.

By tradition, it is also the chief justice who swears into office the president of the Philippines. One notable deviation from that tradition came in 1986, and later again in 2010. Due to the exceptional political circumstances culminating in thePeople Power Revolution, on February 25, 1986,Corazon Aquino took her oath of office as president before Associate JusticeClaudio Teehankee inSan Juan just minutes beforeFerdinand Marcos took his own oath of office also as president before Chief JusticeRamon Aquino. Marcos fled into exile later that night. More than two decades afterwards,Benigno Simeon Aquino III followed in his mother's footsteps (with almost similar reasons) by having Associate JusticeConchita Carpio-Morales administer his oath of office, rather than Chief JusticeRenato Corona (who was eventually impeached halfway through Aquino's term). Six years later, in 2016,Rodrigo Duterte took his oath of office before Associate JusticeBienvenido Reyes, his classmate atSan Beda College of Law, instead of Chief JusticeMaria Lourdes Sereno (who would eventually be removed from her position throughquo warranto after it was determined that she had been unlawfully holding officeab initio).

The chief justice also names the three justices each from the Supreme Court in the memberships of theHouse of Representatives Electoral Tribunal and theSenate Electoral Tribunal.

The chief justice is the chief executive officer of the Philippine judiciary system and together with the whole SupremeCourt, exercises administrative supervision over all courts and personnel.

No.	Portrait	Name (birth–death)	Tenure start	Tenure end	Tenure length	Appointed by
1		Cayetano Arellano (1847–1920)	June 15, 1901	April 12, 1920	18 years, 302 days	William McKinley
2		Victorino Mapa (1852–1927)	July 1, 1920	October 31, 1921	1 year, 122 days	Woodrow Wilson
3		Manuel Araullo (1853–1924)	November 1, 1921	July 26, 1924[a]	2 years, 268 days	Warren G. Harding
4		Ramón Avanceña (1872–1957)	April 1, 1925	December 24, 1941	16 years, 267 days	Calvin Coolidge
5		José Abad Santos (1886–1942)	December 24, 1941	May 1, 1942[b]	128 days	Manuel L. Quezon
6		José Yulo (1894–1976)	January 26, 1942	July 9, 1945	3 years, 164 days	Masaharu Homma
7		Manuel Moran (1893–1961)	July 9, 1945	March 20, 1951	5 years, 254 days	Sergio Osmeña
8		Ricardo Paras (1891–1984)	April 2, 1951	February 17, 1961	9 years, 321 days	Elpidio Quirino
9		César Bengzon (1896–1992)	April 28, 1961	May 29, 1966	5 years, 31 days	Carlos P. Garcia
10		Roberto Concepcion (1903–1987)	June 17, 1966	April 18, 1973	6 years, 305 days	Ferdinand Marcos
11		Querube Makalintal (1910–2002)	October 21, 1973	December 22, 1975	2 years, 62 days
12		Fred Ruiz Castro (1914–1979)	January 5, 1976	April 19, 1979[a]	3 years, 104 days
13		Enrique Fernando (1915–2004)	July 2, 1979	July 24, 1985	6 years, 22 days
14		Felix Makasiar (1915–1992)	July 25, 1985	November 19, 1985	117 days
15		Ramon Aquino (1917–1993)	November 20, 1985	March 6, 1986	106 days
16		Claudio Teehankee (1918–1989)	April 2, 1986	April 18, 1988	2 years, 16 days	Corazon Aquino
17		Pedro Yap (1918–2003)	April 19, 1988	June 30, 1988	72 days
18		Marcelo Fernan (1927–1999)	July 1, 1988	December 6, 1991	3 years, 158 days
19		Andres Narvasa (1928–2013)	December 8, 1991	November 30, 1998	6 years, 357 days
20		Hilario Davide Jr. (born 1935)	November 30, 1998	December 20, 2005	7 years, 20 days	Joseph Estrada
21		Artemio Panganiban (born 1937)	December 20, 2005	December 7, 2007	1 year, 352 days	Gloria Macapagal Arroyo
22		Reynato Puno (born 1937)	December 7, 2007	May 17, 2010	2 years, 161 days
23		Renato Corona (1948–2016)	May 17, 2010	May 29, 2012[c]	2 years, 12 days
–		Maria Lourdes Sereno (born 1960)	August 25, 2012	May 11, 2018[d]	5 years, 259 days	Benigno Aquino III
24		Teresita de Castro (born 1948)	August 28, 2018	October 10, 2018	43 days	Rodrigo Duterte
25		Lucas Bersamin (born 1949)	November 26, 2018	October 18, 2019	326 days
26		Diosdado Peralta (born 1952)	October 23, 2019	March 27, 2021	1 year, 155 days
27		Alexander Gesmundo (born 1956)	April 5, 2021	Incumbent	4 years, 204 days

The following became senior associate justices in their tenure in the Supreme Court:

• José Yulo is the only formerspeaker of the House of Representatives to be subsequently appointed as chief justice. Meanwhile,Fred Ruiz Castro previously served asExecutive Secretary before his subsequent appointment as chief justice. Another,Querube Makalintal, would be elected as Speaker of theInterim Batasang Pambansa (parliament) after his retirement from the court. On the other hand,Marcelo Fernan would, after his resignation from the court, be elected to theSenate and later serve aspresident of the Senate. Other chief justices served in prominent positions in public service after their retirement includeManuel Moran (ambassador toSpain and theVatican),Hilario Davide, Jr. (ambassador to theUnited Nations), andLucas Bersamin (Executive Secretary). In addition,César Bengzon was elected as the firstFilipino to sit as a judge on theInternational Court of Justice shortly after his retirement in 1966.
• Roberto Concepcion was reputedly so disappointed with the court's ruling inJavellana v. Executive Secretary where the majority affirmed the validity of the 1973 Constitution despite recognizing the flaws in its ratification, that he retired two months prior to his reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Thirteen years later, after the ouster of Marcos, the 83-year-old Concepcion was appointed a member of the 1986 Constitutional Commission tasked with drafting a new constitution. Drawing from his experiences as chief justice in the early days ofmartial law, Concepcion introduced several new innovations designed to assure the independence of the Supreme Court, such as theJudicial and Bar Council and the express conferment on the court the power toreview any acts of government.
• The longest period one person served as chief justice was 18 years, 294 days in the case ofCayetano Arellano, who served from 1901 to 1920. Arellano was 73 years, 29 days old upon his resignation, the greatest age ever reached by an incumbent chief justice, and a record unlikely to be broken with the current mandatory retirement age of 70.
• The shortest tenure of any chief justice was ofTeresita Leonardo-de Castro, who served as chief justice for a mere 43 days upon reaching her mandatory retirement age of 70. The previous record was that ofPedro Yap, who served as chief justice for 73 days in 1988. Other chief justices who served for less than a year wereFelix Makasiar (85 days),Ramon Aquino (78 days), andArtemio Panganiban (352 days). Of these chief justices, all but Aquino left office upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70; Aquino resigned in 1986 after the newly installed PresidentCorazon Aquino asked for the courtesy resignations of all the members of the court.
• The oldest person appointed as chief justice wasTeresita Leonardo-de Castro, who was 69 years, 324 days old upon her appointment in 2018. Other persons appointed as chief justice in their 69th year were Pedro Yap (69 years, 292 days old);Felix Makasiar (69 years, 280 days old);Artemio Panganiban (69 years, 13 days old); andLucas Bersamin (69 years, 41 days). The youngest person named as chief justice wasManuel Moran, who was 51 years, 256 days old upon his appointment.
• Claudio Teehankee had to wait for nearly 18 years as associate justice before he was appointed as chief justice. He was twice bypassed byFerdinand Marcos in favor a more junior associate justice before he was finally appointed chief justice byCorazon Aquino. Of the Filipino associate justices,Florentino Torres,J. B. L. Reyes, andAntonio Carpio served at least 18 years in the court without getting the appointment to become chief justice. In contrast, Pedro Yap had served as associate justice for only 2 years, 10 days before he was promoted as chief justice. Also notable isMaria Lourdes Sereno's 2 year and 12 day term as associate justice before herde facto term as chief justice.
• The longest-lived chief justice wasCésar Bengzon, who died in 1992 aged 96 years, 97 days old. Two other chief justices lived past 90:Ricardo Paras (93 years, 235 days) andQuerube Makalintal (91 years, 322 days).
• The youngest chief justice to die wasJosé Abad Santos, who was executed by the Japanese army in 1942 at age 56 years, 77 days. The youngest chief justice to die from non-violent causes wasFred Ruiz Castro, who died in 1979 of a heart attack inflight to India, at age 64 years, 231 days. Abad Santos, Castro, andManuel Araullo are the only chief justices to die while in office.
• The first chief justice to beimpeached isRenato Corona. On December 12, 2011, 188 of the 285 members ofHouse of Representatives voted to transmit to theSenate theArticles of Impeachment filed against him. On May 29, 2012, the Senate, voting 20–3, convicted Corona under Article II pertaining to his failure to disclose to the public his statement of assets, liabilities, and net worth.^[1]
• Maria Lourdes Sereno was the first female appointed to serve as chief justice, following the impeachment of Renato Corona and deliberations by the Judicial and Bar Council in 2012 (her successorTeresita Leonardo-de Castro is thede jure first female chief justice). If not for thequo warranto petition which was granted on May 11, 2018, that removed her from the post as well as voiding her appointment and declaring her tenure as ade facto term,^[2] she would have been the second chief justice to similarly undergo impeachment proceedings as her late predecessor, Corona. Her ouster was made final on June 19, 2018, by the denial with finality (meaning no further pleading would be entertained, as well as for the immediate entry for judgment) of herad cautelam motion for reconsideration filed on May 31, 2018, pleading for the reversal of her ouster viaquo warranto.^[3]

• 
  Portraits of the chief justices at the Supreme Court Building
• 
  The chief justice's judicial chambers
• 
  Reception room for the Office of the Chief Justice

• Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
• Supreme Court of the Philippines
• Constitution of the Philippines
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• The Supreme Court E-library
• The Chief Justice on the Official Gazette of the Philippines
• Sevilla, Victor J. (1985).Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Vol. I. Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers.ISBN 971-10-0134-9.
• Sevilla, Victor J. (1985).Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Vol. II. Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers.ISBN 971-10-0137-3.
• Sevilla, Victor J. (1985).Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines Vol. III. Quezon City, Philippines: New Day Publishers.ISBN 971-10-0139-X.

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