Also draws up shortlist of 8 nominees to Associate Justice post
(Eagle News) — The Judicial and Bar Council has officially begun its search for a new Chief Justice.
In a statement, the Supreme Court said this was one of the actions taken by the JBC in its regular meeting on June 25, Monday.
According to the SC, the deadline for the filing and completion of all requirements was July 26.
The SC said the five most senior Associate Justices of the SC are “automatically nominated,” but “subject to the submission of a written acceptance of nomination to be submitted on or before July 26, 2018.”
Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio has said he would turn down all nominations for the top magistrate post, noting that he has to “be consistent” in his position against Maria Lourdes Sereno’s removal as Chief Justice via a quo warranto petition.
On May 11, the SC en banc, voting 8-6, granted the petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida, ruling Sereno had lacked integrity–a pre-requisite– when she filed her application for the top magistrate post in the first place.
This was because, the SC said, Sereno did not file her Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth when she was teaching law at the University of the Philippines Diliman.
But for Carpio, Sereno’s non-filing of SALN “constitutes culpable violation of the Constitution and betrayal of public trust, which are grounds for impeachment,” and not a quo warranto petition, under the Constitution.
Apart from Carpio, those who were against the granting of the quo warranto petition were Associate Justices Marvic Leonen, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Mariano Del Castillo, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.
Nominees to Associate Justice post
According to the SC, the JBC has also come out with its shortlist of nominees to the post of Velasco, who is slated to retire on August 8.
Apart from SC Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, in the shortlist were Apolinario Bruselas Jr., Rosman Carandang, Ramon R. Garcia, Ramon Paul Hernando, Amy Lazaro-Javier, Jose Reyes Jr., and Cesar Villanueva.
