Of the presidents in the post-EDSA era, only Fidel V. Ramos did not appoint a Chief Justice during his completed six-year term. No vacancy arose during his presidency, as Andres Narvasa remained Chief Justice until after Ramos left office.
Corazon Aquino appointed four: Claudio Teehankee, Pedro Yap, Marcelo Fernan, and Andres Narvasa. Teehankee’s appointment in 1986 came under her revolutionary government, following the ouster of Ferdinand Marcos Sr. Ironically, Marcos had twice bypassed Teehankee, then the Court’s most senior member, in favor of Felix Makasiar and Ramon Aquino.
Joseph Estrada appointed only one, Hilario Davide Jr., who was then the most senior Associate Justice. Estrada however did not complete his six-year term.
Gloria Macapagal Arroyo appointed three: Artemio Panganiban, Reynato Puno, and Renato Corona. She bypassed Puno in favor of Panganiban in 2005 and Antonio Carpio in favor of Corona in 2010.
Benigno Aquino III appointed Maria Lourdes Sereno in 2012, bypassing 11 more senior Associate Justices, including Carpio.
Rodrigo Duterte appointed four: Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Lucas Bersamin, Diosdado Peralta, and Alexander Gesmundo. His appointments included bypassing Carpio in favor of De Castro and Estela Perlas-Bernabe in favor of Gesmundo.
Marcos Jr. is likely to appoint only one Chief Justice during his six-year term. He has already made that appointment, naming Rodil Zalameda on November 5, 2026, bypassing Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen, the most senior among the five JBC nominees.
Technically, Duterte bypassed appointing a Chief Justice only once — Antonio Carpio — who, in his first two of three chances, requested the withdrawal of his nomination. By the third time he was eligible, his tenure would have ended less than six months after an appointment.
But the cases of Marcos Jr., Duterte, Aquino, and Arroyo are worth a separate article worth profiling.
