JBC gets 33 nominees for 2 Supreme Court vacancies

MANILA, Philippines - The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has started screening nominees for the two upcoming vacancies in the Supreme Court (SC) because of the successive retirements of Associate Justices Antonio Eduardo Nachura and Conchita Carpio-Morales next month.

The eight-man council that vets aspirants to judicial posts has received a total of 33 names for the two posts after the period of application and nomination closed last April 29, SC spokesman Midas Marquez bared yesterday.

Marquez said the initial list of aspirants would undergo preliminary screening by the JBC secretariat before it would be submitted for deliberations of the council in its next meeting on May 23.

“The JBC secretariat would screen these nominees based on the minimum requirements and qualifications set by the Constitution for the position of associate justice of the Supreme Court. After which, an initial list would be submitted to the members for deliberations,” he told The STAR.

Under the Constitution, an associate justice of the High Court could be appointed if he or she “is a natural born citizen, at least 40 years old, and must have been for fifteen years or more a judge of a lower court or engaged in the practice of law in the Philippines.”

An additional and less precise constitutional requirement, however, provides that the appointee “must be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity, and independence.”

“It is in this second requirement where deliberations of the JBC members would center upon,” Marquez stressed.

The SC official has announced that six more aspirants made it to the extended deadline of nomination and application: Court of Appeals (CA) Justice Amelita Tolentino, University of the East College of Law Dean Amado Valdez, law professor and noted women’s right advocate Katrina Legarda, human rights advocate and Free Legal Assistance Group founder Pablito Sanidad, and lawyers Sabino Padilla IV and Eduardo Lizares.

They joined 27 other applicants for the two positions in the SC, including 17 CA justices, two Sandiganbayan justices, two Court of Tax Appeals justices, one Constitutional Commission delegate, a Commission on Elections commissioner and four prominent lawyers.

Among them are perennial applicants, including two Muslim CA justices Hakim Abdulwahid and Japar Dimaampao.

Other applicants from the judiciary are: CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr., CA Justices Ramon Bato Jr., Estela Perlas Bernabe, Apolinario Bruselas Jr., Mariflor Punzalan-Castillo, Stephen Cruz, Magdangal De Leon, Isaias Dicdican, Remedios Salazar-Fernando, Portia Alino-Hormachuelos, Bienvenido Reyes, Jose Reyes Jr., Noel Tijam and Vicente Veloso; Sandiganbayan Justices Francisco Villaruz and Alex Quiroz; and CTA Justices Lovell Bautista and Juanito Castaneda Jr.

Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, who applied for the last vacancy awarded to Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, President Aquino’s first appointee to the High Court, has again accepted his nomination.

Also aspiring are Deputy Court Administrator Nimfa Vilches and Biñan, Laguna RTC Judge Marino Rubia.

Outsiders from the judiciary are also vying for the posts: constitutionalist and 1968 Bar topnotcher Rodolfo Robles, UP Law Dean Raul Pangalangan, lawyer Tomas Cabili and law book author Francis Jardeleza. – With Marvin Sy