Justice DELILAH VIDALLON-MAGTOLIS

Head, Academic Affairs Office

Justice Delilah Vidallon Magtolis is a multi – awarded jurist with almost 23 years of service in the judiciary. She was first appointed as a Metropolitan Trial Court Judge in Quezon City at the Judiciary Reorganization of January 1983, and was promoted as RTC Judge in the same city during the reorganization occasioned by the EDSA revolution of 1986. Her award for Judicial Excellence catapulted her to the Court of Appeals in 1994, and it is in this Court where she stayed the longest. After her compulsory retirement in November, 2005 from the Court of Appeals where she received an Achievement award for having disposed of all her cases submitted for decision, she was taken by the Supreme Court to be the Executive Secretary of its training arm, the Philippine Judicial Academy. She held such position until May 31, 2008, as she became the Chief of Office for Academic Affairs effective June 1, 2008.

As a trial judge, she was the recipient of various awards, foremost of which were: the Cayetano Arellano Award for Judicial Excellence as Outstanding RTC Judge, given by the Foundation for Judicial Excellence in 1992, and Most Outstanding RTC Judge among the five nationally – selected in 1989 by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, both after a nationwide search, thorough screening and clandestine investigation. Her other awards include, among others, that of outstanding Judge, IBP of Quezon City; Outstanding Jurist and Public Servant, Quezon City Youth Development Foundation; Woman of Distinction in the Field of Justice, YWCA of Quezon City on its 20th Anniversary; Certificate of Merit from the Philippine Women Judges Association for her “Innovations on Judicial Management and Procedures”: Ulirang Ina Award in the field of Judiciary given by the National Mothers’ Day and Fathers’ Day Foundation; and Area Champion, Impromptu Speech Contest, Toastmasters International (Area 2, Division A).

Justice Magtolis is a graduate of the Francisco College (Ll.B., Magna Cum Laude, 1959), and the Far Eastern University (BSC, 1955). She also took up graduate studies in Public Administration at the University of the Philippines, after winning a graduate fellowship thereat. At Harvard University, Massachusetts, USA, she took up special courses in Law and the Internet, Developments in Family Law, International Litigation, and Public and Private International Economic Law. She has attended various trainings/seminars in the United States of America, Canada, and South Korea.

Working her way through college, Justice Magtolis has more than 48 years of government service. She is also a Professorial Lecturer of the Philippine Judicial Academy, and of certain MCLE providers. She was a former Lecturer of the Institute of Judicial Administration of the University of the Philippines, and of the Department of Justice. She has written several legal articles, published or unpublished, and is a co-author of the Benchbook on “The Child in the Justice System”, published by the FairCHILD and the U.P. Law Center in 1994.

She is also active in socio-civic work, particularly in promotion of the rights and interests of women and children. Justice Magtolis is a Caviteña by blood, her parents (Leon A. Vidallon and Dionisia Cajapin Vidallon, both deceased) being both from Cavite (Alfonso and Kawit, respectively). She is married to Engineer Isagani M. Magtolis of Negros Oriental, with whom she has three daughters, a physician, an information technology manager with M.B.A., and a Lawyer.