MANILA (July 28) – President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. has appointed Justice Mariflor Punzalan-Castillo as Acting Ombudsman, Malacañang announced on Monday, July 28. The appointment was confirmed by Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin via text message.
Castillo steps in following the retirement of Ombudsman Samuel Martires on July 27. Bersamin said the Judicial and Bar Council will begin interviewing candidates for the permanent position after the President’s State of the Nation Address later in the day.
Before her new role, Castillo served as the 8th Special Prosecutor of the Office of the Ombudsman, with a term originally set to end in 2031. Her career began in 1979 as an investigator at the Office of the Tanodbayan, the predecessor of the current Ombudsman office. She became a prosecutor in 1985, and later served as Special Prosecution Officer III from 1989 to 1993.
She entered the judiciary in 1993 as presiding judge of the Metropolitan Trial Court of Quezon City, then the Regional Trial Court from 1999 to 2004. In 2004, she was appointed Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals and later served as its Presiding Justice before returning to the anti-graft agency.
