JBC urged to be careful in choosing justices for Sandiganbayan

MANILA, Philippines - An association of corporate lawyers warned the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) against selecting nominees for the vacant top post in the Sandiganbayan who have links to politicians.

In a letter sent to the JBC last Monday, the Legal Management Council of the Philippines (LMCP) said “great care should be taken in the selection of the next Presiding Justice of the Sandiganbayan to preserve the credibility of the institution.”

“The Sandiganbayan’s mission is to give life and meaning to the constitutional precept that a public office is a public trust and to impress upon the public offices and employees that they are at all times accountable to the people,” said LMCP president Maribert Pagente.

“It is a basic precept of judicial ethics that a judge, like Caesar’s wife, must be above suspicion. He must not only be impartial but should also appear impartial,” he added.

The group stressed he has nothing against any of the 10 nominees for presiding justice of the anti-graft court.

But they hinted opposition to a candidate who openly admitted that he had obtained the blessings of a political patron before applying for the post, saying he is clearly not suited for the role. The candidate was previously a senior partner in a law firm known for its political ties.

The LMPC did not name names but was obviously alluding to Undersecretary Rafael Santos of the Department of the Interior and Local Government.

During his public interview last week, Santos reportedly said that his decision to apply for the judicial post had the go-ahead from Interior Secretary Manuel Roxas II.

Santos was transportation undersecretary for operations when Roxas was the head of the Department of Transportation and Communications.

When Roxas succeeded DILG secretary Jesse Robredo who died in a plane crash off Masbate in August last year, he appointed Santos as undersecretary.

Aside from Santos, others vying for the post vacated by Presiding Justice Francisco Villaruz Jr. include Court of Appeals Associate Justice Apolinario Bruselas, Sandiganbayan Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, lawyer Jasper Lucero, Sandiganbayan Justice Efren de la Cruz, Sandiganbayan Justices Teresita Diaz-Baldos, Gregory Ong and Alex Quiroz.

On July 1, the JBC will come up with a shortlist from which President Aquino will choose the replacement of Villaruz, who retired from the judiciary last June 8.

Supreme Court Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno chairs the JBC, the constitutional body mandated to screen aspirants to the judiciary and the Office of the Ombudsman.