COA chief among 4 in JBC list

MANILA, Philippines - The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) yesterday short-listed four nominees for the lone vacancy in the Supreme Court (SC) following the retirement of Associate Justice Roberto Abad on May 22.

In voting, six members of the constitutional council picked Court of Appeals Associate Justices Apolinario Bruselas and Jose Reyes Jr., Commission on Audit Chairman Grace Pulido-Tan and Quezon City regional trial court Judge Reynaldo Daway from 13 aspirants.

The JBC excluded a fifth nominee, Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, even if he garnered enough votes to make it to the shortlist.

Justices Bruselas and Reyes each got six votes, Tan five and Daway four.

Jardeleza also got four votes, according to an insider. But he was not included in the shortlist due to “integrity” issues raised against him by JBC chair and Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

During deliberations, Sereno invoked Rule 10, Section 2 of the JBC rules, which requires a unanimous vote of the council before a nominee with questions on integrity could be considered for the shortlist.

Jardeleza personally faced the JBC and was confronted about the unspecified issues before the voting.

He asked the Chief Justice to specify in writing the allegations against him so he could have the opportunity to address them. But Sereno, who only referred to the charges as “this and that,” rejected the request and decided to proceed with the voting.

Jardeleza said Sereno was his real “accuser” who should have not been part of the deliberations.

He said he has no idea why the Chief Justice was blocking his bid for an SC post, but recalled an instance when he supported the bid of Danny Concepcion for deanship of the UP College of Law and when he took steps against tardy professors in the college few years ago.

Jardeleza and Sereno reportedly belonged to two opposing factions when they were still in the UP College of Law, with the former allied with Dean Concepcion and the latter with Dean Raul Pangalangan.

In his letter-petition last week, Jardeleza asked the SC to exercise its “constitutional power and duty of supervision” over the JBC due to the latter’s violation of his constitutional right to due process.

He asked the high court to “disallow” Sereno from participating in the JBC’s scheduled voting for its shortlist of nominees.

The SC, however, has not acted on his plea.