GMA names ex-CA justice to JBC

A retired justice of the Court of Appeals was appointed by President Arroyo to the eight-member Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), the head of the 12-man House contingent to the Commission on Appointments (CA) said yesterday.

Cebu Rep. Eduardo Gullas said Malacañang has nominated Justice Aurora Santiago-Lagman, wife of retired Sandiganbayan Justice Roberto Lagman, as a member of the select constitutional body that screens incoming members of the judiciary.

“We just received Justice Lagman’s nomination papers,” Gullas said in a statement.

Lagman will replace the post vacated by former Sandiganbayan Justice Raoul Victorino, whose four-year term had expired. Once confirmed, Gullas said the new JBC nominee will serve until July 2012.

At present, the JBC is composed of Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., representing retired SC justices; Dean Amado Dimayuga, representing law professors; and lawyer Conrado Castro, representing the IBP.

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan and Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor Jr. are also members of the JBC, courtesy of the committees they represent – the Senate and House committees on justice, respectively.

The body’s ex-officio members include Chief Justice Reynato Puno and Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.

Lagman obtained her law degree from the Lyceum of the Philippines and attended special courses at the University of Southern California, National Judicial College, University of Nevada, and the Harvard Law School.

She is also co-author of the book “The Child in the Criminal Justice System and Other Child-Related Laws,” a joint project of Fairchild and the University of the Philippines’ Law Center.

Lagman started out as a lawyer of the justice department’s Citizens Legal Assistance Office in August 1978. She then became a prosecutor, a Bulacan regional trial court (RTC) judge in March 2004 and was promoted to CA justice 10 years later in February 2004.

The Constitution established the JBC to ensure a court system that is independent, effective and efficient, and worthy of public trust. The JBC has the principal function of recommending appointees to the judiciary.

Under the Constitution, the President shall appoint the four regular members of the JBC for a term of four years, with the consent of the CA.

The JBC recommends the members of the SC, CA, Sandiganbayan and the judges of the lower courts, and the Ombudsman and his deputies. The President appoints all of them from a list of at least three nominees proposed by the JBC for every vacancy. 

Only those nominated by the JBC in a list officially transmitted to the President may be appointed by the latter as justices or judges or as Ombudsman or Deputy Ombudsman. – Delon Porcalla