Carpio accepts automatic nomination as Supreme Court Chief Justice

Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio /Supreme Court website/

 

(Eagle News) — Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio has accepted his automatic nomination for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

This was confirmed by Atty. Maria Teresa Sibulo, head of Carpio’s judicial staff.

Carpio, the most senior member of the high court, had previously declined the nomination for Chief Justice after the ouster of Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo De Castro was appointed Chief Justice by President Rodrigo Duterte after Sereno had been ousted through a majority vote by her colleagues at the Supreme Court acting on the quo warranto petition filed by the Office of the Solicitor General.

De Castro retired from government service on Monday, October 8, upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.

The Judicial and Bar Council on Friday extended to October 26 the deadline for the application period for the position of Supreme Court Chief Justice after De Castro’s compulsory retirement last October 10.

The JBC has originally set on October 15 the deadline for the application or recommendation to the post of SC Chief Justice.

This as SC Associate Justice Mariano C. del Castillo today also declined his automatic nomination being one of the five most senior Associate Justices to the post of Chief Justice.

In his letter dated October 12, 2018 to the JBC, Justice Del Castillo stated: “I am honored to be automatically nominated to the post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court…My compulsory retirement next year, however, compels me to respectfully decline the nomination. I foresee that, as Chairperson of the 2018 Bar Examinations, my work will extend to the months just prior to my retirement. That will leave me not much time to embark on notable projects that a Chief Justice will normally want to have an imprint on.” Justice Del Castillo will mandatorily retire as he turns 70 on July 29 next year.

The four other senior Associate Justices who are automatically nominated are Senior Associate Justice Antonio T. Carpio, Justice Diosdado M. Peralta, Justice Lucas P. Bersamin, and Justice Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe. Of the four, Justices Peralta and Bersamin have already been interviewed by the JBC during their automatic nomination for the CJ vacancy caused by the granting of the quo warranto petition against Sereno.

(Moira Encina, Eagle News Service)