Lucas Purugganan Bersamin (born October 18, 1949) is the chairperson of the Government Service Insurance System and a member of its board of trustees since 2020.[1]
He was the 25th Chief Justice of the Philippine Supreme Court, the highest court in the Philippines.[2] He was named by then PresidentGloria Macapagal Arroyo to the High Court as an Associate Justice on April 2, 2009. Prior to becoming an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, he was a member of the Court of Appeals.[3]
Biography[]
Justice Bersamin earned his undergraduate degree from the University of the Philippines and graduated from the University of the EastCollege of Law in 1973. He placed 9th in the 1973 Bar Examinations with an average of 86.3%. Justice Bersamin was then named fellow at the Commonwealth Judicial Education Institute in Dalhousie University in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.[4]
He was in private practice from 1974 until 1986, when he was appointed a trial court judge in Quezon City by President Corazon Aquino. Justice Bersamin was a professor at the Ateneo Law School, the University of the East College of Law, and the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law. He was special lecturer at the College of Law, University of Cebu in 2006. He continues to lecture for the Philippine Judicial Academy.
In 2003, Bersamin was elevated to the Court of Appeals by President Arroyo. In April 2009, through a midnight appointment, Bersamin was elevated by President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo to Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines, a few months before she stepped down from the presidency amid corruption cases that were going to be filed against her.
On February 6, 2020, Bersamin was appointed by President Duterte as the chairperson of the Government Service Insurance System and a member of the agency's board of trustees. He will serve the unexpired term of former GSIS President Jesus Clint Aranas that will end on June 30, 2020.[1]
He is the brother of former congressman Luis "Chito" P. Bersamin, Jr. of Abra, who was gunned down during a wedding ceremony[9] and brother of Abra former provincial governor Eustaquio P. Bersamin.[10]
