JBC resets voting on next Sandigan presiding justice

MANILA, Philippines - The selection process for the next presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan has been stalled because of the final Supreme Court (SC) ruling removing one of two members of Congress from the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

The JBC deferred yesterday the deliberation on nine candidates for the top Sandiganbayan post in place of Presiding Justice Francisco Villaruz Jr., who retired from the judiciary last June 8.

Lawyer Jose Mejia, member of the JBC from academe, said they decided to reset voting to July 29 upon request of the House of Representatives in line with the midterm elections last May 13.

“Congress is currently in recess, so we have to wait for them to convene and send a representative to join in the voting for the shortlist,” he explained.

Mejia said the postponement of the voting, which was originally set yesterday, was sought by re-elected Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. in a letter sent last June 28.

Tupas has been the representative of the House in the JBC. The Senate used to also have its separate voting member in the council with re-elected Sen. Francis Escudero as representative.

The JBC previously had eight members, including Tupas and Escudero.

But in a ruling in July last year, the SC ruled that Congress – both House and Senate – should only have one representative in the JBC.

The high court affirmed this ruling and junked the appeal of Tupas and Escudero in summer session last April.

The SC declared unconstitutional the previous setup in JBC where respective representatives of the Senate and the House are given separate seats and votes for judicial posts, which has been practiced since 2001.

Voting 9-3, the high court ordered the JBC “to reconstitute itself so that only one member of Congress will sit as representative in its proceedings, in accordance with Section 8(1), Article VIII of the Constitution.”

Congress has yet to decide who will be sent to the JBC for deliberations on the top Sandiganbayan post. Both House and Senate are currently in recess and will resume session on July 22.

No representative from either the Senate or House attended the public interviews of the candidates last month.

Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno chairs the JBC with Justice Secretary Leila de Lima as ex-officio vice chair. Apart from Mejia, the other regular members are Milagros Fernan-Cayosa from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, retired SC Justice Regino Hermosisima from the retired justices’ sector and retired Court of Appeals Justice Aurora Lagman from the private sector.

It was learned that Hermosisima’s four-year term in the council would end on July 9.

It is not yet clear whether President Aquino would reappoint him to the post.

The nine nominees for the top Sandiganbayan post are: Sandiganbayan Associate Justices Teresita Diaz-Baldos, Gregory Ong, Alex Quiros, Amparo Tang, and Efren de la Cruz, Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas, Justice Undersecretary Leah Armamento, Interior and Local Government Undersecretary Rafael Santos and Abra Provincial Prosecutor Nestor Tolentino.

Unlike in posts in the SC, the 90-day period for appointment for vacancy in the anti-graft court starts from day of submission of the shortlist to the President.