Congress should have 2 votes in JBC - Enrile

MANILA, Philippines - The two representatives of Congress in the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) that is screening nominees for chief justice should have two votes, according to Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile. 

“If a retired justice of the Supreme Court (SC) will have one vote, why should not a representative of either house of Congress have a vote of equal weight? If a member of the Integrated Bar (of the Philippines) has one vote, why should one member of the Senate or the House have lesser weight?” Enrile said in response to the recent Supreme Court (SC) decision to reduce the number of votes of the two representatives of Congress in the JBC to one.

Initially, Enrile did not want to comment on the ruling of the SC but eventually stated his position that Congress should have two votes in the JBC.

He recalled that the framers of the 1987 Constitution were thinking of a unicameral congress but “when it became two houses, they did not repair these provisions.”

“That is why there is a need to review the Constitution. There are a lot of flaws,” Enrile noted.

He also believed that all judges and justices should go through the confirmation process of the Commission on Appointments (CA), as was the practice before the creation of the 1987 Constitution.

“Before, all of the judges, including the justices of the Supreme Court, have to go through the CA. There are no half votes in the CA... Each member has one full vote,” he explained.

Sen. Francis Escudero and Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., as chairs of the Senate and the House of Representatives justice committees, represent Congress in the JBC.

Tupas and Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. said that all legal remedies would be taken to address the SC ruling, including the filing of a motion for reconsideration.