LAST Friday, Dean Perry Pe invited me to dinner at Raffles Hotel which I gladly accepted because the guest speaker was Supreme Court Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, a man of humble beginnings who worked hard to pay for his own education. The event was organized by Tony Lopez and the Manila Overseas Press Club.

In his speech, Chief Justice Gesmundo presented to lawyers, business organizations and the media, the Supreme Court's Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovation (SPJI) which was adopted in an en banc session last October 2022. This is actually a reform program of the Supreme Court covering the period 2022-2027. He dutifully gave credit to the contributions of other chief justices who came before him, as well as to the members of the current Supreme Court for the formulation of the SPJI.