GMA to name next chief justice before May 10

MANILA, Philippines - President Arroyo could appoint the next chief justice before the May 10 elections, Malacañang said yesterday.

Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar made the disclosure following reports that the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) was set to come up with a shortlist of candidates to succeed Chief Justice Reynato Puno, who retires on May 17.

The JBC is a constitutionally created body that screens possible appointees to vacancies in the judiciary. After the shortlist is drawn, the JBC is expected to immediately submit this to the President.

“We don’t know how much time the President will need to select from the JBC shortlist,” Olivar said. “We expect her to act quickly because we understand the need to have a new chief justice before the elections start.”

“I think we can be assured that the President will move on this and will make her choice from that list as soon as she can,” he said.

He said the names on the shortlist are no secret and they have been widely reported in the media “so there is early discernment on the part of the President (and) helps in speeding up the selection process.”

He said the Supreme Court (SC) has reaffirmed Mrs. Arroyo’s right and duty to appoint the next chief justice and “she will use this right responsibly.”

The four nominees expected to be in the shortlist are Senior Associate Justice Renato Corona, Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Arturo Brion, of the SC; and acting Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval of Sandiganbayan.

The Palace has long justified the need for Mrs. Arroyo to appoint the country’s next chief justice before she steps down on June 30.

Olivar said the holding of presidential elections this year “makes timing especially important” as the SC chief justice and associate justices would constitute the Presidential Electoral Tribunal that would resolve possible protests on the victory of a presidential candidate.

“It will be helpful that none of the justices will owe his or her appointment to any of the presidentiables (in the event of a protest),” he said in a statement.

He cited records of the Constitutional Commission, which showed that the original mandatory period to fill an SC vacancy was actually shorter or 60 days.

“In fact, on at least six occasions from 1988 to 2006, the Chief Justice was replaced on the very same day or the day after. As lawyers like to say, ‘time is of the essence,’” he said in an earlier statement.

Even for the lower courts, the Constitution also requires vacancies to be replaced within 90 days, he said.

“It’s probably going to be her last senior judicial appointment before she steps down and that’s why it’s important for people to know that it is mandatory on the JBC to pursue its role of selecting the nominees and submitting the list to the President,” he said.

“They (JBC members) have a role to play in order for this entire process to finish ending with the President’s own decision based on the list to be submitted to her,” he said.

Olivar said except for Puno, the entire SC was appointed by Mrs. Arroyo, only because she has held office for over nine years so “it’s not a conspiracy, just chronology.”

He said the President or her allies have frequently been overruled by the SC justices, regardless of her having appointed them.

“These are men and women of integrity. There’s a reason they’re called the Supremes,” Olivar said.

He said there is nothing constructive to be gained by insulting the SC justices as having “vacant minds,” or by threatening to impeach whomever the President ends up appointing.

“Neither insults nor threats have a place in civic discourse, let alone a campaign. People who should have learned good manners, if not good civics, should know better,” Olivar said.

Lawyers plan to continue appeal

The Philippine Bar Association (PBA) made a last-ditch attempt to stop Mrs. Arroyo from appointing the next chief justice as the group argued that the SC ruling last March 17 exempting posts in the tribunal from the ban on midnight appointments under Article VII Section 15 of the Constitution is not yet final.

PBA president and former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo said the group plans to file a second motion for reconsideration with the SC so the JBC should defer the submission of a shortlist of nominees for chief justice to Malacañang pending resolution of their second appeal.

“It should be noted that the Highest Tribunal, in certain cases, has entertained second motions for reconsideration. Accordingly, the PBA most respectfully pleads with the JBC to give the PBA a fair chance to exhaust all available legal remedies and wait until the same had been resolved before it submits a list of nominees to the President,” Marcelo said in his six-page letter to the JBC last Friday.

He said the JBC has until May 17, the day Puno retires, to submit the shortlist.

Court administrator and SC spokesman Midas Marquez said the SC’s March 17 ruling already became final last April 20 when a majority of the magistrates voted to dismiss the appeals filed by PBA and other parties in the case.

“Yes, it is true that the Court sometimes entertains second motion for reconsideration, which should be a prohibited pleading but only under special circumstances such as when there is very close voting in the assailed resolution or there is new strong argument raised by parties,” he told The STAR.

Marquez said the 9-1-2 voting of the SC magistrates in this case is far from close and the issues and arguments have been exhaustively discussed in both the decision and resolution, so a second motion for reconsideration in this case might not be entertained anymore.

Meanwhile, the JBC convenes today to issue a shortlist to the President who will pick the successor of Puno.

Complying with the SC order, the eight-man collegial body that picks the nominees to the judiciary will meet at the Hyatt Hotel and Casino in Manila at 11:30 a.m.

Puno, ex-officio chairman of the JBC, said the body will decide today if they will submit three or four names in the shortlist.

The four remaining nominees who had a public interview with the JBC in Baguio City last April 19 are Corona, Leonardo-de Castro Brion, and Sandoval.

Puno, however, believes that Senior Justice Antonio Carpio and Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, the two candidates who manifested their lack of interest in the post due to their stand that Mrs. Arroyo is not allowed by the Constitution to make the appointment, should not be included in the shortlist.

The JBC will submit the shortlist to the Palace after the SC ruled with finality that Mrs. Arroyo is allowed by the Constitution to name the next chief justice despite a ban on midnight appointments.

The other members of the JBC include controversial Justice Secretary Alberto Agra, Sen. Francis Escudero, Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor Jr., retired SC justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., University of Sto. Tomas Dean Emeritus Amado Dimayuga, Justice Aurora Santiago Lagman and Integrated Bar of the Philippines representative J. Conrado Castro.

In its resolution last April 20, the SC affirmed its March 17 decision that positions in the High Court are exempted from the ban on midnight appointments under Article VII Section 15 of the Charter.

Four top nominees

Corona, one of the youngest justices ever appointed to the SC, is now the most senior among the four remaining contenders for chief justice.

Born on Oct. 15, 1948 in Tanauan City, Corona was appointed to the SC on April 9, 2002. He finished his Bachelor of Laws at the Ateneo Law School in 1974.

Corona pursued the Master of Business Administration course at the Ateneo Professional Schools. He finished his Master of Laws at Harvard Law School in 1982.

In 1992, he was invited to join the administration of then President Fidel Ramos as assistant executive secretary for legal affairs. Two years later, he was promoted to deputy executive secretary.

Before his appointment to the SC, Corona served as President Arroyo’s chief of staff and spokesman.

Brion topped the 1974 Bar examinations. From 2003 to 2006, he served as a CA associate justice.

He earned his Bachelor of Laws cum laude from the Ateneo Law School in 1974 where he was class valedictorian and recipient of the Golden Leaf Award, Gold Medal for Academic Excellence and First Honors Gold Medal.

Prior to his appointment to the SC on March 17, 2008, Brion was Mrs. Arroyo’s labor secretary. He also served as undersecretary of labor and of foreign affairs.

De Castro was presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan when former President Joseph Estrada was convicted of plunder in 2007.

She earned her AB Political Science (cum laude, 1968) and Bachelor of Laws (1972) at the University of the Philippines (1979). She passed the Bar exam of 1972 with a rating of 80.9 percent.

Sandoval, on the other hand, graduated cum laude from Far Eastern University. He took the Bar in 1964 and obtained a rating of 80.8 percent. From 1986 to 1996, he was a regional trial court judge in Manila.