Chief Executive Ho Iat Seng has appointed Tong Hio Fong, who is currently a judge of the Court of Second Instance (TSI), as that court’s president effective from next Tuesday, succeeding Lai Kin Hong who will retire.
Ho announced Tong’s appointment in an executive order published in the Official Gazette (BO) yesterday. Ho signed the order last Thursday.
According to Ho’s executive order, which will take effect on Tuesday next week, Tong’s appointment will last three years, and can be renewed when it expires.
In addition, yesterday’s executive order stated that as Lai has asked for early retirement, his appointment as the president of the Court of Second Instance will come to an end on Tuesday next week.
Lai has headed the Court of Second Instance since December 20, 1999 when the Macau Special Administrative Region (MSAR) was established.
According to Macau’s Judicial Organisation Framework Law, the president of the Court of Second Instance is appointed by the chief executive. The duration of the appointment lasts three years, and can be renewed by the chief executive upon expiration.
According to the Official Gazette, Ho renewed Lai’s appointment as the TSI head on December 20, 2020 for a three-year term, which means that his appointment was initially scheduled to expire in December next year.
Tong had been a judge of the Court of First Instance (TJB) since the establishment of the MSAR. Then chief executive Fernando Chui Sai On appointed Tong as the president of the Court of First Instance effective from January 2011.
Ip Son Sang, who is currently the MSAR’s public prosecutor-general, succeeded Tong as the president of the Court of First Instance in October 2013, when Tong was appointed as a judge of the Court of Second Instance.
Ip has been the MSAR’s top prosecutor since December 2014.
Tong was appointed by Chui as the president of the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) that oversaw the legislature’s direct and indirect elections in 2017. Tong was again appointed, by Ho at that time, as the head of the commission that oversaw the legislative direct and indirect elections last year.
Tong Hio Fong, who headed the Legislative Assembly Electoral Affairs Commission (CAEAL) that oversaw the legislative direct and indirect elections last year, talks to reporters in May last year after a closed-door meeting of the commission at the Public Administration Building in Rua do Campo. – Photo: Tony Wong
