Jose Catral Mendoza (born August 13, 1947) is a former

associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines An associate justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines ( fil, Kasangguning Mahistrado ng Kataas-taasang Hukuman ng Pilipinas) is one of fifteen members of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, the highest court in the Philippines. The C ...

Legal career

political science Political science is the scientific study of politics. It is a social science dealing with systems of governance and power, and the analysis of political activities, political thought, political behavior, and associated constitutions and la ...

graduate of the

University of the Philippines The University of the Philippines (UP; fil, Pamantasan ng Pilipinas Unibersidad ng Pilipinas) is a state university system in the Philippines. It is the country's national university, as mandated by Republic Act No. 9500 (UP Charter of 200 ...

, Jose Mendoza took up his

law studies Jurisprudence, or legal theory, is the theoretical study of the propriety of law. Scholars of jurisprudence seek to explain the nature of law in its most general form and they also seek to achieve a deeper understanding of Reason#Logical rea ...

in the

San Beda College of Law San Beda College of Law is the law school college under the San Beda University, a private, Roman Catholic university run by the Benedictine monks in the Philippines.Directory of Higher Education Institutions, Commission on Higher Education, 2006 ...

where he led the establishment of

Lex Talionis Fraternitas ''Lex Talionis Fraternitas, Inc. Sodalitas Ducum Futurorum'' is an exclusive fraternal organization of Filipino jurists, legal practitioners, and law students founded on September 28, 1969, at the San Beda College of Law. A chapter in the Ateneo ...

. After passing the 1971

Bar Examinations Bar or BAR may refer to: Food and drink * Bar (establishment), selling alcoholic beverages * Candy bar * Chocolate bar Science and technology * Bar (river morphology), a deposit of sediment * Bar (tropical cyclone), a layer of cloud * Bar ( ...

, the young lawyer engaged in private practice and served as legal counsel of private corporations such as the Philippine Banking Corporation, the Manila Electric Co., and the Gokongwei Group of Companies. He also became a senior consular investigator for the

United States Embassy The United States has the second most diplomatic missions of any country in the world after Mainland China, including 166 of the 193 member countries of the United Nations, as well as observer state Vatican City and non-member countries Kosovo a ...

before entering government service as a senior research attorney in the

Court of Appeals A court of appeals, also called a court of appeal, appellate court, appeal court, court of second instance or second instance court, is any court of law that is empowered to hear an appeal of a trial court or other lower tribunal. In much of t ...

in 1977. From 1980 to 1985, he worked as an associate in the Alampay Alvero Alampay Law Office before rejoining the Judiciary in 1985 as a confidential attorney in the Supreme Court, serving under Justices Nestor Alampay and Abdulwahid Bidin.

Career in the judiciary

Mendoza became a member of the Bench in 1989 when he was appointed presiding

judge A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges. A judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers or solicitors of the case, assesses the credibility an ...

of the Regional Trial Court of

Santa Cruz, Laguna Santa Cruz, officially the Municipality of Santa Cruz ( tgl, Bayan ng Santa Cruz), is a first class municipality of the Philippines, municipality and capital of the Philippine Province, province of Laguna (province), Laguna, Philippines. Accor ...

. He eventually became the executive judge of the same court in 1992. In 1994, he was designated presiding judge, and later on as executive judge, of the

Quezon City Quezon City (, ; fil, Lungsod Quezon ), also known as the City of Quezon and Q.C. (read in Filipino as Kyusi), is the List of cities in the Philippines, most populous city in the Philippines. According to the 2020 census, it has a populatio ...

Regional Trial Court. After 15 years as a judge, he was appointed Associate Justice of the

on July 4, 2003. One of his well-known decisions as an appellate justice was the reinstatement of the criminal charges against millionaire businessman Dante Tan, an ally of former

President President most commonly refers to: *President (corporate title) *President (education), a leader of a college or university *President (government title) President may also refer to: Automobiles * Nissan President, a 1966–2010 Japanese ful ...

Joseph Estrada Joseph Ejercito Estrada, (; born Jose Marcelo Ejercito; April 19, 1937), also known by the nickname Erap, is a Filipino politician and former actor. He served as the 13th president of the Philippines from 1998 to 2001, the 9th vice preside ...

who was involved in a stock price manipulation scandal. He also penned the decision approving the petitions for the

writ of amparo In most legal systems of the Spanish-speaking world, the writ of ("writ of protection"; also called , "appeal for protection", or , "judgement for protection") is a remedy for the protection of constitutional rights, found in certain jurisdicti ...

and the writ of

habeas corpus ''Habeas corpus'' (; from Medieval Latin, ) is a recourse in law through which a person can report an unlawful detention or imprisonment to a court and request that the court order the custodian of the person, usually a prison official, t ...

filed by the families of

students Sherlyn Cadapan and Karen Empeño, who were abducted by the members of the military in 2006. On January 4, 2010, he was appointed

Associate Justice Associate justice or associate judge (or simply associate) is a judicial panel member who is not the chief justice in some jurisdictions. The title "Associate Justice" is used for members of the Supreme Court of the United States and some state ...

of the Supreme Court to replace erstwhile Associate Justice

Minita Chico-Nazario Minita Chico-Nazario (December 5, 1939 – February 16, 2022) was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines. She was appointed to the court by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo on February 10, 2004. Profile Born in San Migue ...

. His first major decision as a member of the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

was the controversia
''Biraogo vs. Truth Commission''
where he struck down as unconstitutional

Benigno Aquino III Benigno Simeon Cojuangco Aquino III (; February 8, 1960 – June 24, 2021), also known as Noynoy Aquino and colloquially as PNoy, was a Filipino politician who served as the 15th president of the Philippines from 2010 to 2016. The son of ...

's Executive Order No. 1 creating a

Truth Commission A truth commission, also known as a truth and reconciliation commission or truth and justice commission, is an official body tasked with discovering and revealing past wrongdoing by a government (or, depending on the circumstances, non-state act ...

to investigate corruption during the administration of former

Gloria Macapagal Arroyo Maria Gloria Macaraeg Macapagal Arroyo (, born April 5, 1947), often referred to by her initials GMA, is a Filipino academic and politician serving as one of the Deputy Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Philippines, House Deputy Spe ...

. Together with nine of the 15-member tribunal, he invalidated the executive order because of its apparent transgression of the

equal protection clause The Equal Protection Clause is part of the first section of the Fourteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution. The clause, which took effect in 1868, provides "''nor shall any State ... deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal ...

for singling out the Arroyo administration. In his ponencia, Mendoza blatantly tagged Aquino's Truth Commission "as a vehicle for vindictiveness and selective retribution." Justice Mendoza also wrote the high tribunal's decision i
''Imbong vs. Ochoa''
striking down as unconstitutional eight major provisions of the highly divisive Reproductive Health Law (RH Law), which was strongly opposed by

religious conservatives Conservatism is a cultural, social, and political philosophy that seeks to promote and to preserve traditional institutions, practices, and values. The central tenets of conservatism may vary in relation to the culture and civilization ...

in the country. Mendoza nonetheless upheld the validity of the remaining provisions of the RH Law despite his strong affiliation with the influential

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

. In his ponencia, the magistrate highlighted the constitutional principle of

separation of church and state The separation of church and state is a philosophical and jurisprudential concept for defining political distance in the relationship between religious organizations and the state. Conceptually, the term refers to the creation of a secular sta ...

, stressing that "the church cannot impose its beliefs and convictions on the State and the rest of the citizenry. It cannot demand that the nation follow its beliefs, even if it sincerely believes that they are good for the country."

External links

Supreme Court of the Philippines Official Website - MENDOZA, J.C., J.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Mendoza, Jose C. 1947 births Living people Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the Philippines 20th-century Filipino judges People from Lipa, Batangas San Beda University alumni University of the Philippines alumni Justices of the Court of Appeals of the Philippines 21st-century Filipino judges