5 bets for CJ post face JBC today

MANILA, Philippines — The five aspirants for the chief justice post will face the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) today.

The JBC, a seven-member council tasked to screen nominees to judicial posts, will look into the qualifications of Supreme Court Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin and Andres Reyes Jr. as well as Tagum City, Davao del Norte Regional Trial Court Judge Virginia Tejano-Ang for the top judicial post in public interviews.

Last month, the SC submitted to the JBC its recommendation for the chief justice vacancy and endorsed all its four members vying for the post.

Bersamin topped the list after getting a unanimous vote from the 10 other justices, while De Castro and Peralta got nine votes each. Reyes, on the other hand, got two votes. 

They were among the eight justices who voted to oust Maria Lourdes Sereno as chief justice by granting the quo warranto petition by Solicitor General Jose Calida. 

De Castro, Peralta and Bersamin accepted their automatic nomination for the post enjoyed by the five most senior justices of SC. Reyes and Ang, on the other hand, applied for the post.

De Castro was appointed to the high court by former president and now Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in December 2007. Prior to her promotion, she was the presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan and chair of the special division of the anti-graft court that convicted ousted president Joseph Estrada of plunder that year.

A recipient of numerous judicial excellence awards, the magistrate rose through the ranks, starting from court clerk and has been serving in government for 45 years. She is set to retire from the judiciary this October. If appointed chief justice, she will only have a couple of months to lead the high tribunal.

Peralta and Bersamin – known as “twins” in the high court – both rose from the judicial ranks prior to their promotion to the SC by Arroyo.

Peralta, a former presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan and member of the special division that convicted Estrada of plunder in 2007, was appointed to the SC in January 2009. 

A Quezon City regional trial court judge (RTC) from 1994 to 2002, he was dubbed the “hanging judge” because he sentenced to death more than 40 people when the death penalty was still in effect.

Bersamin, on the other hand, was a Court of Appeals justice before his appointment to the SC in April 2009. But like Peralta, he was also a Quezon City RTC judge.

Both are recipients of numerous judicial excellence awards.

Peralta still has four years before retiring from the judiciary while Bersamin has until October next year.

Reyes, for his part, was appointed to the SC by President Duterte in July last year. He was presiding justice of the CA and still has two years in the judiciary.

He penned a ruling declaring as unconstitutional then justice secretary Leila de Lima’s Department Order No. 41, which authorizes the justice chief to issue hold departure orders, watchlist orders or allow departure orders.

Tejano-Ang, meanwhile, was the judge who issued an arrest warrant against a suspect in the killing of a local radio anchor in September 2014.