Hon. Alexander G. Gesmundo is 27th Chief Justice
By SC
Chief Justice Gesmundo, the 27th Chief Justice of the Philippines, also took his oath before Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe at the En Banc Session Hall.
MANILA, Apr. 5 — The Supreme Court today received the transmittal letter from the Office of the President on the appointment of Associate Justice
Alexander G. Gesmundo as Chief Justice.
Chief Justice Gesmundo, the 27th Chief Justice of the Philippines, also took his oath before Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe at the En Banc Session Hall this afternoon.
Associate Justice Marvic M.V.F. Leonen was also at the Session Hall while the rest of the Associate Justices and the Chief Justiceโs immediate family witnessed the oath-taking via videoconferencing.
Chief Justice Gesmundo has to his credit 36 years of public service, with more than a decade and a half served in the Judiciary prior to his appointment to the top SC post. He will mandatorily retire when he turns 70 on November 6, 2026.
He earned his law degree from the Ateneo de Manila University in 1984. After passing the Bar Examinations in 1985, he entered government service as Trial Attorney in the Office of the Solicitor General (OSG). He was awarded Most Outstanding Solicitor in 1998. In 2002, he was promoted to Assistant Solicitor General.
While working for the OSG, he was on Seconded Appointment as Commissioner of the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) from July 1998 to February 2001. After 20 years with the OSG, Justice Gesmundo was appointed Associate Justice of the Sandiganbayan on October 15, 2005. He served as Chairperson of its 7th Division and as co-Chairperson of the anti-graftโs Committee on Rules. He was examiner in Remedial Law in the 2009 and 2015 Bar Examinations.
On August 14, 2017, he was appointed to the SC as its 178th magistrate.
As SC Associate Justice, he chaired the Technical Working Group for the Revision of the Law Student Practice Rule, and the Organizing Committee for the 2019 Legal Education Summit. He is also Vice Chairperson of the Special Committee for the Rules of Procedure for Admiralty Cases, Special Committee for the Rules on Inspection (under the Philippine Competition Act), the Sub-Committee for the Revision of the 1997 Rules of Civil Procedure, the Special Committee on the Rules of Procedure in Election Contests before the First Level Courts. He is also a Member of the SC Committees on Computerization and Library, on the Revision of the Rules of Court and the Special Committee on Speedy Trial.
Chief Justice Gesmundo was a member of the Corps of Professors and a Professorial Lecturer of the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), particularly in remedial law. He was the Vice-Chairperson of the PHILJAโs Department of Remedial Law. He was the Examiner in Remedial Law in the 2009 and 2015 Bar examinations. He has taught various remedial law subjects at the Ateneo de Manila University, the Lyceum of the Philippines University, and the University of Perpetual Help, Las Piรฑas City.
Likewise, Justice Gesmundo was a member of the core committee of the National Conference for the Revision of the Rules of Civil Procedure, a joint project of the Supreme Court, the UP Law Center, the PHILJA, and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP).
He is a member of the Committee on the Updating of the Benchbook for Philippine Trial Courts (Revised and Expanded) and of the Court of Tax Appeals 2004 Committee on Revision of the Rules of the Court of Tax Appeals.
Before he started his public career, he worked as Research Analyst from 1977 to 1979, with Business Day Corporation, publisher of the business newspaper Business Day and Top 1000 Corporations of the Philippines wherein a few of his articles were published. He also worked as Market Research Officer at the Office of the Australian Trade Commissioner, Australian Embassy, Manila from 1979-1980, and continued as its Marketing Officer in 1980-1985. (SC)
