MANILA, Philippines - A senior administration lawmaker urged yesterday candidates for the position of chief justice identified with either President Aquino or former President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to withdraw their nominations.
“This is for the good of the country to ensure the judicial independence of the Supreme Court from the executive (branch), influential political figures and other parties,” House Majority Leader and Mandaluyong City Rep. Neptali Gonzales II told reporters.
Gonzales cited the case of acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, who was accused by former chief justice Renato Corona of plotting to oust him so that Carpio could take over his post.
“Acting Chief Justice Carpio should be out from the race. The President locked in himself not to appoint a candidate close to him because the challenge for him is to appoint the next chief justice who is very much qualified and has no connection with him,” he said.
“I think the President would also be sensitive and would not want anyone to reproach him in the future for his choice for chief justice,” he added.
Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., ex-officio member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) as chairman of the House committee on justice, earlier told reporters that the close ties of some of the nominees for chief justice to Aquino or Arroyo could be made into an issue by critics.
Guidelines for live coverage
Meanwhile, a JBC member said yesterday they have drafted the guidelines for the live broadcast of the interviews of candidates for chief justice.
Jose Mejia, who represents academe, said media networks that will be accredited for live coverage will have the discretion to cover only the bets they are interested in.
“The whole idea is to make the process transparent and make live coverage available to the media. It’s hard to second-guess the media but it would be your own lookout which ones you would want to cover. We can’t compel you to cover everyone,” he told reporters.
He also cited concerns that the nominees would be subjected to humiliation and harassment with allegations that could come up during the interview.
“But it’s a risk you have to take when you decide to seek a top public position,” he said.
Under the proposed guidelines subject for approval of members of the JBC, only one camera provided by the SC public information office would be allowed inside the venue of the oral interview.
The SC camera will then be hooked up directly to the cameras of TV networks, which will transmit the footage to their respective OB vans to be stationed outside the venue.
“This is the best setup we can think of where the process can be more transparent to the public with the least possible distraction,” Mejia said.
Saying the selective live coverage of interviews could be unfair to less prominent nominees, Mejia said he would propose a dialogue with representatives of the media to discuss the issue.
The JBC executive committee composed of Mejia; Milagros Fernan-Cayosa, representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines; retired Court of Appeals justice Aurora Lagman from the private sector; and retired SC justice Regino Hermosisima, who will lead the council’s selection process for chief justice, deferred discussion on the proposed live coverage of their deliberations and voting for the shortlist.
“The sense of the executive committee is to take it one step at a time,” Mejia said.
2 SC justices decline nomination
As this developed, Associate Justices Mariano del Castillo and Estela Perlas-Bernabe declined their nomination in separate letters received yesterday by the JBC.
Bernabe, Aquino’s third appointee to the high tribunal, said she would rather defer to more senior justices for the top judicial post.
Former energy secretary Raphael Lotilla also declined his nomination.
“In the past, I took the position that in a highly politicized context as in the Philippines, appointment to the office of the chief justice based on seniority is a tradition that minimizes the jockeying for appointment from within and outside of the Court. I still have to be convinced of the wisdom of departing from that view,” Lotilla said in his letter received by the JBC last Monday.
Former defense secretary and presidential candidate Gilbert Teodoro Jr., Integrated
Bar of the Philippines national president Roan Libarios, Laguna Assistant State Prosecutor Cesar Sasondoncillo, former senator Rene Saguisag and lawyer-businessman Rodolfo Robles earlier declined their nominations.
At least 13 have so far accepted their nomination. They are Associate Justices Arturo Brion and Roberto Abad, former UP law dean Raul Pangalangan, De La Salle University founding law dean Jose Manuel Diokno, former Ateneo law dean Cesar Villanueva, election commissioner Rene Sarmiento, retired judge Manuel Siayngco Jr., former executive secretary Ronaldo Zamora and lawyers Katrina Legarda, Soledad Cagampang-de Castro, Rafael Morales, Vicente Velasquez and Ferdinand Jose Pijao.
The other nominees are Carpio and the three other senior justices of the SC – Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, and Diosdado Peralta – who apart from Brion were automatically nominated for the post under JBC rules.
SC Justices Lucas Bersamin, Martin Villarama Jr., Jose Mendoza, Bienvenido Reyes, Jose Perez, Roberto Abad and Maria Lourdes Sereno were also nominated along with Court of Appeals presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. and Associate Justices Japar Dimaampao and Magdangal de Leon and Sandiganbayan presiding Justice Francisco Villaruz Jr.
Also in the list are Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares, Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, former Makati City Rep. Teodoro Locsin Jr., former solicitor general Francisco Chavez, Manila regional trial court Judge Ma. Amelia Tria-Infante and lawyers Pedro Aquino, Hilarion Aquino, Nepomuceno Aparis, Teresita Herbosa, Jose Renante Terre Jr., Vicente Velasquez, Alexander Padilla, Antonio Villamor, Rey Oliver Alejandrino and Ramon Maronilla.
The other nominees are University of the East
College of Law dean Amado Valdez and former UP law dean Marvic Leonen.
A nurse named Jocelyn Esquivel and dismissed judge Florentino Floro are so far the only applicants.
Henares undecided
Henares said she has yet to decide on whether to accept her nomination. She said her major consideration is her work at the BIR.
“We’re doing a lot of things at the BIR. We are in the middle of reforms and the process is ongoing,” Henares told reporters.
She added that aside from putting in place reforms at the BIR, she is also helping push the tax reform measures of the Aquino administration, the sin tax reform measure among them.
“The work of a chief justice is important. What we are doing is also important,” Henares said.
The JBC extended to July 2 the deadline for candidates to accept their nominations. – With Edu Punay, Iris Gonzales