Manila, Philippines - Malacañang yesterday said it will not meddle in Congress’ decision on who should sit in the powerful Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) after the Supreme Court ruled that the legislative branch is allowed to have only one representative.
The JBC is now in the process of selecting the next chief justice after the removal of Renato Corona. The Senate, sitting as an impeachment court, ousted Corona for failure to declare all his assets as required by law.
The JBC is mandated by the 1987 Constitution to screen applicants for posts in the judiciary, the Ombudsman, and deputy Ombudsmen and come up with a shortlist of names from which the President may choose.
“It will entirely be the decision of the House and the Senate, how they will discuss and decide on who will be the representative to the Judicial and Bar Council. Because it’s obviously a representative coming from the legislature,” presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said.
“Maybe the House and the Senate will talk, either among the leadership or between Sen. (Francis) Chiz Escudero or (Iloilo Rep. Niel) Tupas (Jr.). That’s something that they will have to decide on their own,” he said over radio dzRB.
Lacierda was asked who between Escudero and Tupas would the Palace prefer to sit in the JBC.
The SC granted the petition of former solicitor general Frank Chavez and ruled that the council’s present composition of eight was unconstitutional.
The High Court held the wording of the 1987 Constitution was very clear that Congress should have only one representative in JBC.
JBC Facebook, Twitter accounts
The JBC has recently created official Facebook and Twitter accounts to provide the public venues where they can send in questions for candidates, in addition to the live media coverage of public interviews of candidates for judicial positions.
In a statement, the Supreme Court Public Information Office (PIO) said the Facebook and Twitter accounts will be operational for the duration of the interviews.
For the interviews of candidates vying for the position of chief justice, the public can post questions from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. from July 24 to July 27.
The name of the JBC Facebook account is “Judicialandbarcouncil Supremecourt” while the JBC Twitter handle is “@SupremeCourtJBC.”
Guidelines for the public on the usage of both accounts will also be posted by the JBC online, the SC-PIO said.
Formal opposition filed
Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano, meanwhile, has filed a formal opposition to the nomination of Commission on Elections commissioner Rene Sarmiento as chief justice before the JBC.
The public interviews of the JBC for the nominees for chief justice start Tuesday and among the candidates is Sarmiento.
In a letter sent to the JBC dated July 17, Cayetano raised several questions about the integrity of Sarmiento as a candidate for the post of the highest magistrate of the country.
Cayetano claimed that Sarmiento played a role in the alleged poll fraud that took place in the 2007 and 2010 elections and that he made no effort to address the issues facing the country’s electoral system.
“We cannot afford to commit another mistake in the appointment of a chief justice. We cannot appoint somebody like Commissioner Sarmiento whose competence, integrity, probity, and independence are not beyond suspicion,” Cayetano said in his letter.
According to Cayetano, Sarmiento “allowed, if not abetted, the perpetration of fraud” against him during the 2007 senatorial elections.
While he singled out Sarmiento in his letter to the JBC, Cayetano explained that his problem with the Comelec in 2007 involved the other members of the poll body whom he accused of sitting on his petition to disqualify a certain Joselito Pepito Cayetano as a senatorial candidate.
He said that Joselito Pepito was obviously a nuisance candidate who ran only to confuse the electorate and sabotage his chances of winning but the Comelec decided to disqualify him three days before the election.
In fact, Cayetano pointed out that he lost millions of votes that were considered stray because of the delayed action of the Comelec on his petition.
“Commissioner Sarmiento did not protest this machination – no angry denunciation, no stinging dissent. Not even a whimper. Later on during the counting of the votes, he would also inexplicably turn a blind eye to the statistically impossible results of zero vote for candidates (President) Noynoy Aquino, (Sen.) Ping Lacson and myself in some areas,” Cayetano said.
He said that there were witnesses that came out later on claiming that Sarmiento was involved in a grand conspiracy to rig the 2007 senatorial election with the intent of defeating Aquino, Lacson and him.
“Commissioner Sarmiento was one of those who took charge of the election in Mindanao in 2007. The election was characterized by massive cheating which resulted in the orchestrated defeat of then senatorial candidate Koko Pimentel,” Cayetano said.
“His inclusion in the list of aspirants for the position of chief justice to the Supreme Court may prove to be an embarrassment if I do not bring these events, facts, and matters to the attention of the honorable members of this Council. I will be as guilty as Commissioner Sarmiento if I remain silent,” he added.
Cayetano urged the JBC to examine the decisions of the Comelec which were participated in by Sarmiento in order to see how he flip-flopped and reversed himself.
“I wish to stress that we have just undergone the painful impeachment of the head of the judiciary. What the judiciary needs now is a chief justice who will not only heal the wounds of impeachment, but more importantly, restore the people’s faith and confidence in the Supreme Court. It is in this light that I express my faith and confidence in and appreciation for the honorable members of this Council,” Cayetano said.
Genuine reforms sought
An organization comprised of Catholic schools in the country said that the next chief justice should be able to implement genuine judicial reforms and maintain his or her impartiality on issues.
The Catholic Educational Association of the Philippines (CEAP) recently issued a one-page statement titled, “Re-affirming The People’s Faith in the Judiciary: The next chief justice of the Supreme Court should be one who can carry out genuine judicial reforms.”
CEAP believes that apart from the requirements stated in the Constitution, the New Code of Judicial Conduct and other laws and policies, it is most vital for the JBC and President Aquino to consider someone who could implement authentic reforms in the judiciary.
The group said that the new chief justice should be someone who could be a role model in terms of integrity, impartiality, independence of mind, competency and most of all uprightness and honesty and is fully committed to the rule of law.
“He or she should lead in countering the prevailing intertwining culture of patriarchy, corruption and impunity in our present judicial system,” they said.
“The next head of the SC should also be a visionary who knows that judicial independence does not mean that people in the judicial branch of government may do whatever they want and cannot be made accountable to the people. As the third coequal branch of the government, it is interdependent with the two other branches in ensuring that the provisions of the Constitution and the laws are upheld all the time,” the group said.
CEAP further said that the next chief justice “must be a believer and follower of God and a person who will abide and lead the judiciary to comply with God’s imperatives.”
“As a visionary, the next CJ must be able to lead the entire judicial branch of the government in acknowledging that judicial reform must be achieved as a pre-condition to genuine peace, democracy and sustainable development in our country. The incoming CJ should be a strong advocate for judicial reforms and work toward a transparent, accountable, responsible and judicious use of its resources and funds including among others the Judiciary Development Fund (JDF),” the group said.
The CEAP recommended that the next chief justice should include programs for the judiciary such as: restructuring the Office of the Court Administrator so that its functions should be confined to court administration and management; effective court case flow management since the clogged dockets of the court from the SC down to the lowest level of the courts need a thorough overhaul; observance of Human-Rights-Based Approach (HRBA) in resolving all and every case to ensure application of the concepts of Human Rights, Gender Equality and Equity; ethics in the administration of justice; implementation of RA 8369 for the creation of regular family courts in order to reserve the present trend of alleged miscarriage of justice in many family courts in the country; and assurance that all citizens especially the poor and disadvantaged sectors in the community shall have equal access to justice in the courts of the Philippines. – With Sandy Araneta, Marvin Sy, Evelyn Macairan