The formal announcement of a new chief justice was delayed due to the last-minute lobbying of Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, one of the contenders for the post.

Santiago has urged Mrs. Arroyo to discuss her exclusion from the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

Santiago called on the President to defer the appointment of Panganiban’s replacement after she was not nominated by the JBC.

Santiago said the JBC erred when they did not include her in the shortlist submitted to Malaca±ang and accused Panganiban as behind the plot.

She told reporters that she would also re-assert her support for constitutional assembly which is now being discussed at the House of Representatives.

Panganiban, who turned 70 years old at midnight Dec. 6, bid the officials and employees of the SC farewell sans the traditional presence of the President.

Mrs. Arroyo’s absence from Panganiban’s retirement rites show a marked contrast with the retirement rites of former Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. last year, which were attended by the President and former President Corazon Aquino, among other luminaries. Arroyo is still smarting from Panganiban’s vote that scuttled her People’s Initiative to change the Constitution.

In his valedictory speech, Panganiban said that now that he is retired from government service, he will devote his time to his family: “To my wife, my children and grandchildren, I know I have been an absentee husband, father and grandfather during the last 11 years. From tomorrow onwards, with the blessings of retirement, I pledge to be a more caring husband, a more attentive father and a more doting grandfather. I promise to pursue more fervently my APOStolate  nine of them: three boys and six girls. To all of you, I dedicate my eleven books. After all, I wrote them in the evenings, on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays days and times that should have been devoted to you."

Panganiban said serving as chief justice is a blessing of enormous value for himself: “Thank you very much to everyone who has made this miracle possible. Indeed, in this serene and majestic temple of justice of our country, I celebrate my fervent thanksgiving."

 He also thanked the President for naming him chief justice,  saying: “Let it be on record that President Arroyo had not asked me to do anything in return for that momentous event. In fact, she had not even spoken with me at any time prior to my appointment.

“I learned of her choice only after it had been announced before media, on the evening of December 20, 2005 by the President’s spokesperson, Secretary Ignacio Bunye," he said. “At that time, I was addressing an appreciation dinner in honor of Supreme Court employees who helped in ensuring the success of our then recently concluded International Conference and Showcase on Judicial Reform, when the emcee interrupted me to say that Channel 7 had just aired the announcement."

Panganiban also thanked former President Fidel Ramos for appointing him as a justice of the Supreme Court in 1992.

He also said he appreciated the individual and collective efforts of his colleagues in the Supreme Court who helped him attain his vow to lead a judiciary characterized by “independence, integrity, industry and intelligence."

“One that is morally courageous to resist influence, interference, indifference and insolence and is impervious to what I call the plague of ships, kinship, relationship, friendship and fellowship," Panganiban said.

It was Panganiban’s court which promulgated three landmark decisions in cases involving liberty and prosperity during its summer session in Baguio City.

In particular, the Panganiban court struck down as unconstitutional the Arroyo administration’s Calibrated Preemptive Response (Bayan Muna v. Ermita), certain provisions of Executive Order No. 464 (Senate v. Ermita) and Presidential Proclamation No. 1017 (Davide v. Arroyo).

Last October, the Panganiban Court dismissed the petition for a people’s initiative to amend the 1987 Constitution (Lambino v. Comelec).

Panganiban is also the concurrent ex-officio chair of the JBC.