The Senate today adopted a resolution honoring the late Supreme Court Associate Justice and Secretary General of the 1987 Constitutional Commission Flerida Ruth Romero who passed away last December 8, 2017 at the age of 88.
Senator Richard Gordon, author of Proposed Senate Resolution No. 569, said Romero “devoted her services to improve the lives of her countrymen, and worked tirelessly for the rights of Filipinos.”
Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon also served as the co-author of the resolution.
The resolution hailed Romero “for her lifelong service to the country as a public servant in different capacities and as an academic.”
“Her enduring commitment to the country is evidenced by her honest and unquestionable service to several major branches of the government, namely the Executive, the Judiciary and the Constitutional Commission,” the resolution said.
Romero, according to the resolution, was the 5th woman to become a member of the Supreme Court. Appointed by then President Cory Aquino in 1991, she served as an Associate Justice of the high court until her compulsory retirement in 1999.
Before serving in the Supreme Court, Romero also served as the Secretary General of the Constitutional Commission, which drafted the current 1987 Constitution.
The resolution said that in her professional career, Justice Romero was a “well-regarded authority” in the field of Civil Law, and played a key role in drafting of the Family Code of the Philippines.
“She was also a well-respected figure in Labor Law, being the first labor arbitrator under Presidential Decree No. 21, (which created the National Labor Relations Commission during the term of former President Ferdinand Marcos), and an accredited voluntary arbitrator,” the resolution said.
The resolution added that Romero led the establishment of the Asian Labor Education Center (now the UP School of Labor and Industrial Relations) at the University of the Philippines, which she headed as Director and Dean from 19862 to 1963.
Apart from her professional achievements, the resolution also said that Romero was “an advocate of the rights of women and children,” and headed the Philippine delegation to the 1975 International Women’s Year Conference in Mexico. For her various efforts, she received the Gintong Ina Award in 1995.
She also held key positions in several prominent local and international organizations, such as the International Association of Women Judges, and the Philippine Women Judges Association of the Philippines.
The resolution also cited Romero’s achievements in the academe, who was “the author of numerous scholarly works,” the late justice also taught at the UP College of Law, where Gordon, Drilon and Senate President Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III were her students.
“She also created media programs to popularize the law… As a host on radio call-in shows, she answered listener’s questions about the law to make it more accessible to the people,” the resolution added.
“Justice Romero had many opportunities to leave public work and pursue a lucrative practice in the private sector. However, her love for country and dedication to public service compeller her to remain in the public sector to serve her countrymen,” Gordon said in the resolution.
Romero was born in Tondo, Manila on August 1, 1929. An alumni of the University of the Philippines College of Law in 1952, she also earned her master’s degree from the Indiana University – Bloomington Maurer School of Law. ###