Supreme Court Associate Justice Mario Villamor Lopez took center stage on Tuesday, March 2, as he grilled petitioners during the 4th day of oral arguments on the anti-terror law.

The long-time member of the judiciary asked, among other questions, why lawmaker Edcel Lagman is seeking to void the law that the House of Representatives, of which he is a member, passed.

Lopez, a criminal law expert, also touched on whether or not the anti-terror law should be voided for being vague.

The oral arguments on the dangerous anti-terror law is the second for Lopez, who was appointed to the High Court in December 2019 by President Rodrigo Duterte.

What else do we need to know about Associate Justice Mario Lopez?

From SC technical assistant to associate justice

Lopez hails from La Union. He was born on June 4, 1955, making him 65 years old as of March 2, 2021. This makes him an SC justice until his mandatory retirement at the age of 70 in 2025.

He obtained his law degree from San Beda College, the alma mater of President Rodrigo Duterte, where he graduated cum laude.

According to the SC’s Public Information Office, Lopez placed among the top 30 examinees in the 1980 Bar exams with an average of 85.05%.

Lopez’s appointment as the 185th Associate Justice signaled a full circle for him. It was in the High Court where he began his career at the Philippine judiciary.

After finishing law school, Lopez went on to work as technical assistant in the SC from 1981 to 1983. He then became a hearing officer under the Supervision and Examination Center of the Central Bank of the Philippines until 1985.

Lopez also worked as special prosecutor officer at the Office of the Ombudsman, then called the Tanodbayan.

He stayed there until his appointment as regional trial court judge of Batangas City in 1994. In 2005, Lopez received the Chief Justice Ramon Avanceña Award as outstanding RTC judge. 

In 2006, then-president Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed Lopez to the Court of Appeals. He was chairperson of the 12th Division and also chaired the CA’s rules committee.

His recent decisions prior to leaving the CA included affirmation of the labor case win of GMA media workers against the network giant, and the denial of a petition for the writ of amparo of rights groups against harassment from state forces.

Upon his SC appointment, rights group Karapatan expressed concern over declining judicial independence in light of widespread abuses and attacks on dissent.

“This will mean complicity on human rights violations and the utilization of the SC to justify violations and reaffirm the passage of repressive and controversial policies,” the group said in a statement.

Photo from the SC website

‘Last cadence’

While working in the judiciary, Lopez also worked in the academe, teaching at his alma mater San Beda College, Arellano University, and at the Philippine Judicial Academy, among other schools.

After his appointment in December 2019, Lopez said that his stint at the SC is the “last cadence of his judicial career” which he tagged as the “most difficult too.”

He added that it is an impossible dream to surpass the skills of other SC justices.

“For now, my only dream is to equate, if not to approximate, those qualities,” he said. “Once I have achieved those qualities, I could say to myself that I have achieved my purpose.”

“I have already succeeded in my quest to become a deserving servant of justice,” Lopez said. – Rappler.com