Puno inhibits self in appointment of successor

MANILA, Philippines - Chief Justice Reynato Puno has opted to inhibit himself in upcoming deliberations of the Supreme Court on four consolidated petitions that would resolve whether or not the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) should submit its shortlist to President Arroyo and whether she can appoint the next chief justice.

The SC will then decide on the legality of a proposal to allow the President to appoint the next head of the country’s judiciary without the opinion and vote of Puno.

“The JBC is the respondent, I’m the chairman of the JBC and they’re (petitioners) challenging the actions taken by the JBC. So, necessarily, I have to inhibit,” he told reporters at the sidelines of the ASEAN Law Association assembly yesterday.

Puno was referring to the consolidated petitions of the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) and lawyers Jaime Soriano, Arturo de Castro and Estelito Mendoza.

Earlier this week, the High Court already ordered the government and the JBC to submit separate comments by next week.

The petitions basically involve two main issues: whether or not Mrs. Arroyo can appoint the next chief justice given the constitutional ban on appointments and whether or not the JBC can move to withhold the shortlist and in effect determine if she has the authority to do so.

The SC moved to resolve the petitions while allowing the JBC to proceed with the selection process, which is now in the stage of collecting comments and allegations against the six aspirants for the chief justice post.

In an advertisement in The STAR last Saturday, the JBC published the names of the candidates. In the list are Senior Associate Justices Antonio Carpio and Renato Corona; Associate Justices Conchita Carpio-Morales, Arturo Brion and Teresita Leonardo-de Castro; and Sandiganbayan Acting Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval.

Asked if he would advise his fellow Supreme Court justices – especially Justices Carpio and Morales who both accepted their nomination but only if the appointment is made by the next president – to inhibit themselves from the deliberations, Puno replied: “That is addressed to the individual justices concerned. But so far there is no motion to inhibit any of the justices including those who set conditions for their nomination.”

Puno said he expects a Supreme Court ruling on this issue to be released after a month or two.

Lawyer opposes Carpio bid for CJ post

In a related development, a lawyer opposed yesterday the bid of Carpio to the chief justice post.

In a two-page letter to the JBC, lawyer Joel Obar cited the “decision of the SC in the matter of the inquiry into the 1989 elections of the IBP (Integrated Bar of the Philippines)” as main basis for his protest to the candidacy of Carpio.

Obar accused the senior magistrate of being “one of the conspirators who treated the sanctity of IBP elections in 1989 with ignominy.”

He said it was established by the SC that candidates for the IBP presidency and their respective supporters “have used government property and resources and even extravagantly spent for solicitation of votes and electioneering, in clear contravention of the mandate of the IBP bylaws that the body should at all times remain apolitical.

“From the records of the aforementioned case, it was clearly established that Antonio Carpio spent P20,000 in hotel accommodation in Philippine Plaza Hotel to billet the delegates. This has been adjudged by the Supreme Court as a conscious and deliberate act to influence the outcome of the elections, in clear contravention of the IBP bylaws,” Obar recalled.

Earlier, Corona, the other top contender for the chief justice post, was accused of impropriety when he dismissed the certiorari case a lawyer filed against the Philippine Amusement and Gaming Corp. and PhilWeb Corp. over the operation of online cockfight betting, arguing it was a unanimous decision of members of the then first division of the Supreme Court (SC).

This allegation reached the SC after Carpio sought an investigation as to who leaked the information to the losing litigant, which was supposedly a breach of confidentiality of the Court.

Palace keeps off complaint  vs Carpio

Meanwhile, Malacañang distanced itself from the complaint filed against Carpio, who was appointed by President Arroyo to the SC in 2001.

Deputy presidential spokesperson Charito Planas said the matter of the move to disqualify from the list of nominees to the SC was within the jurisdiction of the JBC.

“These matters are always with the JBC, and it would be the JBC that will decide,” Planas told reporters.

She said the particular move was not likely to influence Mrs. Arroyo in deciding whom to appoint to succeed Chief Justice Puno, who retires on May 17.

The Palace has held the position that the President is mandated by the Constitution to appoint a chief justice so that the post would not be vacant with or without a shortlist coming from the JBC.

Earlier, Executive Secretary Eduardo Ermita said she is likely doing her own screening of candidates for the post of chief justice in the event the JBC does not submit a shortlist.          – With Paolo Romero