JBC presses Palace on new SC justice

There can be no delay.

Malacañang cannot afford to dilly-dally on the appointment of a new Supreme Court justice, since doing so would violate the Constitution, a member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) said.

Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan, the Senate’s representative in the JBC, said Paragraph I, Section 4 of the Constitution requires that a vacancy in the Supreme Court should be filled within 90 days. Since Justice Josue Bellosillo retired last Nov. 28, a replacement should have taken over by yesterday.

Pangilinan said President Arroyo must uphold the constitutional provision.

"She cannot defeat the JBC’s constitutional authority to nominate by refusing to appoint and returning the list to the JBC," Pangilinan said.

Until yesterday, Malacañang could not say what the status was of Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Minita Chico-Nazario’s appointment as associate justice of the Supreme Court.

It was unclear whether the Palace had just put Nazario’s appointment on hold or if somebody else would be appointed to the SC.

Usually articulate, Presidential Spokesman Ignacio Bunye clammed up and refused to elaborate on the issue, saying "I cannot add to or subtract from what the President has said on the matter."

Even Executive Secretary Alberto Romulo, himself a JBC member, said that Nazario’s appointment papers did not pass through his office, though it should have been transmitted to Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr.

Pangilinan added that the President’s "freezing" of Nazario’s oath-taking was equivalent to non-appointment and, thus, the list of nominees should have been sent back to the JBC, under the rules governing the appointment of justices.

The JBC might have to re-submit its list of nominees for the next SC justice because of this development, Pangilinan said.

"Taking the oath of office is part of the whole process to fill up the vacancy," he said.

Pangilinan said the President may have to go over the JBC list anew and select the next SC justice from among the other nominees if Nazario cannot assume her new post on time, as the President said earlier this week.

In the first place, he said, the President diverged from the top JBC choice for the post, Court Administrator Presbitero Velasco. Those who ranked below Velasco were Nazario, Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo, Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Cancio Garcia and University of the Philippines professor Ruben Balane.

Benipayo reportedly threatened to resign after being bypassed by the Palace, but he refused to comment on the matter.

It was also reported that the President withdrew her appointment of Nazario after the Palace was bombarded with angry protests by leaders of civil society groups and legal luminaries, who were critical of Nazario’s handling of the corruption case against ousted President Joseph Estrada.

The President later said that she picked Nazario as her eighth SC appointee, but that Nazario would first have to finish some important issues on the Estrada plunder trial.

Mrs. Arroyo said the delay in Nazario’s assumption of her new post was to give the Sandiganbayan presiding justice time to tie up loose ends at the anti-graft court.

"With regards to Nazario, there is a clamor for her to finish some of the more important issues regarding the Estrada case, which she is handling," the President said earlier. "So I am giving her some time with regard to that."

Nazario’s appointment was supposedly signed by the President on Feb. 10 and the deferment of her oath-taking has triggered many speculations on the matter.

Nazario reportedly went to the SC after she was informed about her appointment. She was expecting to be sworn in by the Chief Justice.

No oath-taking ceremony took place then because Nazario was unable to present an official copy of her appointment and other supporting documents.

Pangilinan said the JBC will discuss the matter further during a meeting Wednesday.