and staff member of the Philippine Law Journal.  She was elected to lifetime membership in the Phi Kappa Phi International Honor Society and Pi Gamma Mu International Honor Society in the Social Sciences and later attended law courses in the International Law Institute in Washington D.C., USA and Harvard Law School’s Program of Instruction of Lawyers in Massachusetts, USA.
  
Now on her 34th year in government, Justice De Castro’s career in public service began on February 19, 1973, after she passed the examination the Supreme Court administered to some top 20 fresh law graduates for a law clerk position in the Court. From January 1975 to November 1978, she served as a Legal/Judicial Assistant and as member of the technical staff of the late Chief Justice Fred Ruiz Castro.  In December 1978, she transferred to the Department of Justice (DOJ) where she rose from the ranks culminating in her appointment in 1997 as Assistant Chief State Counsel. In 1998, for her role as legal adviser of the government panel she was awarded by then President Fidel V. Ramos with the Presidential Medal of Merit.

Justice De Castro rejoined the Judiciary as Sandiganbayan Associate Justice on September 23, 1997 and became its Presiding Justice on December 15, 2004.  During her incumbency, she spearheaded the establishment of the Computerized Case Management System  and the adoption of reforms that contributed to easing of the court docket in the Sandiganbayan and to the professionalization of its work force.