Deadline ends today for chief justice bids

MANILA, Philippines - The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) is set to convene today as the 10-day deadline for application and nomination for the position of chief justice ends.

It will be the second meeting of the JBC on the selection process for the replacement of ousted chief justice Renato Corona. The council is tasked to screen candidates for chief magistrate.

The JBC has initially listed a total of 29 aspirants for the top SC post. But the list will be trimmed down following the disqualification of two nominees and the decision of others to decline nomination.

A nurse named Jocelyn Esquivel was the lone applicant. But she is expected to be disqualified since the Constitution requires that a chief justice must be a lawyer who had served as judge for at least 15 years.

Another nominee, Hilarion Aquino, will be delisted since he is already 80 years old. The mandatory requirement age for SC justices is 70.

Laguna Assistant State Prosecutor Cesar Sasondoncillo, meanwhile, has reportedly declined his nomination.

Lawyer Ma. Victoria Gleoresty Guerra, acting SC spokesperson, said the JBC will publish the names of the nominees in a newspaper of national circulation and set dates for their oral interview.

Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and four other senior justices of the High Tribunal - Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion and Diosdado Peralta - were automatically nominated for the post under JBC rules.

Associate Justices Jose Perez, Roberto Abad, and Maria Lourdes Sereno, the first appointee of President Aquino to the SC, were also nominated for chief magistrate.

Other nominees are Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto-Henares, and Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza.

Also nominated to the SC post are elections commissioner Rene Sarmiento, former solicitor general Francisco Chavez, retired judge Manuel Siayngco Jr., Rodolfo Robles, Pedro Aquino, Nepomuceno Aparis, Katrina Legarda and Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Roan Libarios.

Members of academe nominated for the top SC post include Ateneo de Manila University College of Law Dean Cesar Villanueva, University of the Philippines College of Law Dean Raul Pangalangan, University of the East College of Law Dean Amado Valdez, law professor Rafael Morales, former UP law dean Marvic Leonen and former Makati City congressman Teodoro Locsin Jr.

Aside from Legarda, Pangalangan and Morales, all nominees have yet to accept their nomination.

The JBC will come up next week with an initial list of candidates who will undergo public interviews in July.

The council deliberations will be chaired by retired SC justice Regino Hermosisima.

Meanwhile, Henares, a front-runner for the chief justice post, has until today to decide whether she would accept or decline her nomination.

If Henares refuses to accept her nomination, Carpio may be a shoo-in for the position being the most senior member of the SC. He is automatically among those considered to replace Corona, who was removed from office after the Senate impeachment court found him guilty of culpable violation of the Constitution.

The President had earlier hinted that he might pick an outsider for the post.

Henares said she would have to carefully consider the matter since she is in the middle of implementing reforms in the tax agency. She was a crucial witness for the prosecution in the impeachment trial of Corona. - With Iris Gonzales