THE Executive confirmed on Thursday the appointment by President Duterte of two more associate justices for the Court of Appeals.
In a letter transmitted by the Office of the President through Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea dated May 18, 2022, it informed Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo of the appointment of John Zurbito Lee in lieu of Associate Justice Dorothy Montejo-Gonzaga who resigned in November last year.
Also appointed as appellate court magistrate was Eleuterio Larisma Bathan, who will assume the post vacated by Associate Justice Japar Dimaampao who was appointed as an associate justice of the SC in September 2021.
Prior to his appointment to the CA, Lee served as the managing partner of Lee Yu Rigets Law where he handled taxation, estate planning, corporate law and others.
Lee, who received his Juris Doctor Degree from the Ateneo Law School in 2004 and passed the Bar in the same year, has 17 years of law practice.
Bathan, on the other hand, was the Presiding Judge of Regional Trial Court, Branch 29 of Quezon City prior to his appointment to the CA.
He graduated from San Sebastian College Recoletos, Manila and was admitted to the Bar in 1999.