Villaruz tops JBC's Sandigan shortlist

MANILA, Philippines - One of the anti-graft court justices who convicted former President Joseph Estrada for plunder leads the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for the top post in the Sandiganbayan.

Associate Justice Francisco Villaruz Jr., the third member of the special division of the anti-graft court that found Estrada guilty of plunder in 2007, was the unanimous choice of all eight members of the JBC during deliberations yesterday morning.

The other two members of that former

division were Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Diosdado Peralta. Both are now Supreme Court (SC) justices.

Villaruz, 68, is currently chairman of the third division of the anti-graft court and chairman of the special division of the same court.

An alumnus of the University of the Philippines College of Law, he had been in the shortlist of SC nominees seven times and for presiding justice of Sandiganbayan four times in the past.

Villaruz became a Sandiganbayan magistrate on Oct. 2, 2001 and will retire on June 8, 2013. This means he will be presiding justice for only 21 months if President Aquino appoints him.

SC spokesman and JBC consultant Midas Marquez said aside from Villaruz, also included in the JBC shortlist that will be submitted to the Palace within the week were Associate Justices Efren de la Cruz and Alex Quiroz.

De la Cruz got seven votes while Quiroz got six, according to Marquez.

De la Cruz is current chairman of the first division of the anti-graft court.

Last year, he penned the ruling ordering the imprisonment of a former Caloocan City judge for forcibly kissing three female court and city mayor office employees, and licking the ear of one of them, 15 years ago.

De la Cruz is strict but kind, though some have difficulty getting along with him because “medyo mahirap daw pakibagayan (he’s quite hard to get along with).”

He is nevertheless known to be a very religious person as he belongs to the Jesus Is Lord (JIL) Christian group of Brother Eddie Villanueva.

De la Cruz, chairman of the first division, became a Sandiganbayan justice on Oct. 10, 2003 and will retire on June 18, 2024.

Quiroz is the youngest of the three nominees as he is only a junior member of the third division. He joined the Sandiganbayan on Dec. 5, 2008 and will retire on May 27, 2027.

Quiroz is known to be kind, easy to get along with, and approachable as he is one of the youngest of the Sandiganbayan magistrates.

He handled the controversial Nida Blanca slay case during his stint as judge at the Pasig City regional trial court.

Villaruz, De la Cruz, and Quiroz were chosen by the JBC from seven other nominees for the position left vacant by the retirement of presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval last June 20.

The other nominees were Sandiganbayan Associate Justices Gregory Ong, Teresita Diaz-Baldos and Roland Jurado; Deputy Court Administrator Nimfa Vilches; lawyer Tomas Cabili, Benguet RTC Judge Danilo Camacho; and RTC Judge Pampilo Silvino Jr.

The JBC recently reopened the application and nomination for the top Sandiganbayan post in anticipation of questions on the nominations of Ong and Diaz-Baldos.

The SC had previously penalized Ong with a fine of P15,000 for misconduct after being charged by Assistant Special Prosecutor III Rohermia Jamsani-Rodriguez of deciding a case on his own without the two other justices of the fourth division of the anti-graft court.

He was the controversial justice who was already appointed by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to the SC, but his appointment was returned by the SC to Malacañang over questions on his citizenship due to his Chinese roots. But the SC eventually upheld his Filipino citizenship as a natural-born citizen.

Diaz-Baldos, on the other hand, is facing criminal charges in the Department of Justice for approving the controversial plea-bargaining agreement in the plunder case against former military comptroller Carlos Garcia.

In yesterday’s voting, JBC member and Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. initially moved to defer the voting pending the council’s resolution on his move to ease qualifications for aspirants to judicial posts. But he was overruled.

According to JBC member and Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, they needed to vote on the position already considering its importance and the urgency of the need to fill the vacancy.

Tupas had pushed for the relaxation of requirements for judicial posts, reportedly to accommodate more nominees.

But former chief justices Hilario Davide Jr., Artemio Panganiban and

Reynato Puno, all ex-officio chairmen of the JBC during their respective terms in the SC, all opposed the proposal and agreed that it would be contrary to the purpose of having strict requirements for candidates. - With Michael Punongbayan