The current presiding justice of the appellate court is not the first Vasquez to don the magistrate’s robe.  His father, Conrado Vasquez Sr., served as Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals in 1973 and was appointed Associate Justice of the Supreme Court in 1992 before becoming the first Ombudsman in 1998.

The younger Vasquez initially forayed into politics as a councilor in Biñan, Laguna from 1964-1967 then as vice mayor from 1968-1971. He worked as a private practitioner until 1987 before his appointment as a judge of the Pasay City Regional Trial Court, where he served until 1994.

Vasquez replaced Justice Ruben Reyes, who was appointed to the Supreme Court, as head of the Court of Appeals on November 28, 2007.

The 67-year-old native of Paco, Manila is married to Emily Gonzalez Vasquez, with whom he has four children - Conrado III, Regina Aurora Juanita, Agnes Rosario and Ruth Almira. Agnes Rosario and Ruth Almira are currently employed in the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS).

Agnes Rosario is a dentist in the GSIS medical department while Ruth Almira is with the office of the corporate secretary. Vasquez’ sister, Lenny Vasquez de Jesus, used to be a GSIS trustee from 1998-2004.

Associate Justice JOSE L. SABIO, JR.

Sabio was appointed to the Court of Appeals on May 26, 1999. A graduate of the Ateneo de Manila University College of Law, he worked up the ladder of the judiciary first as a regional trial court judge in Gingoog City in March 1990 then as a judge in his birthplace, Cagayan de Oro City.

His father, Jose Sabio Sr., also served as executive judge in Cagayan de Oro City.

Like Vasquez, Sabio also tried his hand in politics as the barangay captain of Gusa, Cagayan de Oro City from May 1984-May 1986. Prior to this, he worked as a director of the technical staff of the Cagayan de Oro City government in 1973 and as a secretary to the city mayor in 1972.

Aside from being the chair of the CA ninth division, Sabio is also a professorial lecturer in the Philippine Judicial Academy (PHILJA), the UP Institute of Judicial Administration (UPIJA), and a pre-bar reviewer in Legal Ethics at the Ateneo School of Law.

He was accorded the title Professor Emeritus by Xavier University College of Law where he taught for 32 years.

Aside from the Meralco-GSIS case, the more recent major cases under Sabio include the petition for the writ of amparo filed by detained National Democratic Front consultant Elizabeth Principe and the reclassification of the entire Nasugbu town into an eco-tourism zone, automatically exempting it from the Comprehensive Agrarian Reform.

Associate Justice MYRNA DIMARANAN - VIDAL

Appointed to the Court of Appeals on January 24, 2005, Vidal previously worked as a National Bureau of Investigation agent from 1968-1986 and as assistant prosecutor from 1986-1994.

She also served as presiding judge from 1994 to 2005 at the Regional Trial Court, Branch 127, Caloocan City and became its executive judge from 2004 to 2005.

When she was the executive judge, her sala was designated as a special criminal court for heinous crimes in 1996 and then as special criminal court for drug cases in 2000.

Vidal was awarded a plaque of recognition as outstanding judge by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption (VACC) in 2001. In 2004, she was hailed as an outstanding judge by her colleagues in the Supreme Court Judicial Excellence awards.

Along with her husband, she wrote the revised edition of the book War Against Drug Abuse, a resource material recommended by the Philippine Drug Enforcement Agency and the Dangerous Drugs Board.

Associate Justice BIENVENIDO L. REYES

Reyes is the ponente of the decision which junked the petition filed by various media organizations against the promulgation of Proclamation 1017 in 2007 due to “lack of jurisdiction.”

 PP 1017 was issued by President Arroyo amid threats of rebellion. One of the resulting actions from the said order is the raid of the office of The Daily Tribune, a broadsheet that is highly critical of Arroyo.

In his ponencia, Reyes wrote that the proper venue for the petition was the regional trial court, not the Court of Appeals.
 
Reyes was appointed CA associate justice on August 8, 2000. Before joining the judiciary in 1990, he formed his own law firm in Makati, the Reyes Daway Lim Bernardo Lindo and Rosales law office.

He also served as vice-president and secretary for various private corporations, one of which is the R.C. Silverio Group of Companies.

Associate Justice VICENTE Q. ROXAS

Roxas worked as an en banc consultant of the Securities and Exchange Commission for eleven years. SEC’s jurisdiction on the Meralco-GSIS row is the bone of the legal war at the appellate court.

Roxas, appointed on February 6, 2004, also served as presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court of Quezon City.

In an story in 2007, Manila Times reported that Roxas was the subject of an administrative complaint filed by Erlinda Bilder-Ilusurio,  president of Philippine Communications Satellite Corp. (Philcomsat).

Ilusurio filed the complaint against Roxas for ‘gross ignorance of the law’ after he ruled on a petition that was withdrawn already by Emmanuel Nieto, a Philcomsat stockholder.

Nieto asked the CA to stop the SEC from calling the annual stockholders’ meeting of Philcomsat Holdings Corp.

However, just last June, the Supreme Court dismissed Ilusurio’s complaint citing that the “decision to grant or deny the motion to withdraw is discretionary on the part of the judge.”

Associate Justice APOLINARIO D. BRUSELAS, JR.

Bruselas penned the decision which stopped the creation of a management committee that would supervise the Steel Corp. of the Philippines following the absence of a hearing on the case.

He rebuked Judge Maria Cecilia Austria of Batangas RTC for ordering the creation of the committee without “a full-blown hearing.”

Another major decision that he wrote stressed that the government has the sole authority to decide on issues affecting diplomatic relations after critics assailed the transfer of convicted rapist Lance Cpl. Daniel Smith to the US embassy.  

Before he was appointed  CA justice, Bruselas served as an officer in the Judge Advocate General Service.

He is also a former trial prosecutor in the Makati special courts, a review prosecutor, and member of several special task forces and committees of the Department of Justice.