Tribute: SC’s Flerida Ruth Romero

Flerida Ruth Romero, a former associate justice of the Supreme Court, died last Dec. 8 at the age of 88. She was a member of the Court from 1991 to 1999.

Romero belonged to Class 1952 of the University of the Philippines College of Law, which counted among its members a vice president (Salvador Laurel), a senator (Joker Arroyo), a chief justice (Marcelo Fernan) and associate justices (Florentino Feliciano, Serafin Cuevas and Hugo Gutierrez Jr.).

A member of her class who is still in the active practice of law (and whose services are sought after by political personalities in conflict with the law) is Estelito Mendoza, a former justice secretary and solicitor general.

Romero’s appointment to the Court by President Cory Aquino initially did not sit well in the legal circles because she had no prior trial or judicial experience. She was a full-time professor of civil and labor laws at UP, director of the UP Law Center, and officer of the UP Asian Labor Education Center which later evolved into the School of Labor and Industrial Relations.

But all doubts about her appointment were banished when her well-written decisions in the Court, including her concurring and dissenting opinions, became public. She proved that an academician has a place in the Court as much as lawyers with extensive court experience.

I learned the intricacies of civil law under Romero. She had the knack for reducing into simple language the complex rules on family relations, inheritance, contractual obligations and related subjects. Her lectures on these topics still resonate with me up to the present.

Romero’s expertise on civil law was put to good use during the discussions in 1987 on the amendment of the provisions of the Civil Code of the Philippines (which took effect in 1949) on marriage, filiation and family relations.

She played a significant role in updating those provisions to meet the exigencies of the times and give women the recognition they rightfully deserve in the family and society in general.

It helped that she was also the special assistant of President Aquino at that time, and so shortly after the amendments were finalized and compiled as the Family Code of the Philippines, the latter, by virtue of her legislative authority then, issued Executive Order No. 209 to enact it into law.

In her lectures on labor law, Romero emphasized mutual respect and cooperation between labor and management. Her proficiency in labor practices and proven sense of objectivity made her the preferred choice as arbitrator in labor disputes before and after she was appointed to the Court.

She wrote her resolution in arbitration cases in Filipino and explained in layman’s language the applicable provisions of the Labor Code and decisions of the Court.

In one instance, she penned the decision of the Court on a labor case entirely in conversational Filipino, with her fellow justices signing their concurrence in the same manner. The latter must have suffered from serious nosebleed reading the decision. To my knowledge, that feat has yet to be duplicated.

She wrote her arbitration decisions in Filipino to make sure that the employees who are parties to the case would be able to understand her ruling without having to ask their lawyers to interpret it for them.

Romero retired from the Court in 1999 with a clean slate, in terms of case assignments and integrity. The justices who worked with her admired her work ethic and no-nonsense approach in deciding cases based on the evidence presented and nothing else.

She is probably turning in her grave because of the controversy that is presently rocking the Court. The three major players in the impeachment case — Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and Associate Justices Teresita de Castro and Francis Jardeleza — were her students.

Ever prim and proper, Romero, if she were alive today, would have admonished them not to wash their dirty linen in public.

Godspeed, Professor Romero! You’ve made the country and the institutions you served proud with your presence.

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Raul J. Palabrica ([email protected]) writes a weekly column in the Business section of the Inquirer.