MANILA, Philippines - A senator allied with the Aquino administration on Thursday opposed the clamor to televise the sessions of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) in the selection of the new Chief Justice.
Sen. Ralph Recto also criticized the decision of the JBC to require applicants to sign a waiver to allow the scrutiny of their bank deposits.
Instead, Recto said the JBC should be allowed to accomplish its task away from distraction. The JBC will submit to President Benigno Aquino III a shortlist of candidates for the new Chief Justice.
"Let us not, please, turn the search for the next CJ as if the applicants are candidates vying for the title of the next 'American Idol' or the new Ms. Universe," Recto said.
He said televising the selection process would mean that JBC members would have to contend with a daily barrage of adverse opinions and "expert comments."
"We created the JBC to do the work that the more than 100 million Filipinos could not do. We should trust them to give us a short list of nominees that are worthy of becoming the next CJ... We must trust the better judgment of the President to deliver to us a Chief Justice that is beyond suspicion and reproach," Recto said.
He also said that after the televised impeachment trial of former Chief Justice Renato Corona, there should be no more another televised drama involving the judiciary.
“Let’s not bring in the cameras inside the JBC, one televised impeachment drama should be enough for one year,” the senator said.
Recto also underscored the need to preserve the integrity and sanctity of the selection process.
“I have also full confidence in the media to sift through information from the JBC proceedings as to how the selection process is going and alert us with any sign of lutong macao,” the senator said.
Recto said public records related to the search for the next Chief Justice could be readily accessed by the media.
Meanwhile, Recto said requiring applicants to sign bank waivers is also "self-limiting and might drive away differently opinionated but very much qualified would-be nominees," Recto said.
"We might be limiting the field of choices and miss out the best and the brightest just maybe because they see it as built-in but absurd trap," he said.
The JBC is the body created under the 1987 Constitution to submit to the President a list of three nominees each for every vacant judicial position in all courts. The President can only appoint judges and justices from the short list of nominees submitted by the JBC.
The JBC is composed of the Supreme Court Chief Justice as ex-officio chair, with the secretary of Justice, and the chairs of the House and Senate justice committees as ex-officio members. The other four regular members come from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the academe, the private sector, and a retired member of the Supreme Court.
The JBC has said that a new Chief Justice may be appointed in July.
Besides the five most senior justices of the SC, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and Commissioner Kim Henares of the Bureau of Internal Revenue are reportedly among the persons being considered to be the next Chief Justice. De Lima and Henares were both presented by the prosecution as witnesses in the impeachment trial against Corona. -- Christina Mendez