JBC to deliberate on next CJ

MANILA, Philippines — The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) is set to select the names to be included in the shortlist of applicants for the post of chief justice on Nov. 9, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said on Friday.

Five magistrates of the Supreme Court (SC) were the only applicants for the position of chief justice vacated by Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, who retired on Oct. 10 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.

She served for less than two months as chief magistrate. She assumed the highest SC post after the ouster of her predecessor Maria Lourdes Sereno by her own colleagues – including De Castro.

The magistrates aiming for the top judicial post were Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Andres Reyes Jr.

The JBC had originally set the deadline for filing of applications and nominations for the chief justice position for Oct. 15, but this was extended to Oct. 26 at 4:30 pm.

Carpio is the most senior magistrate by date of appointment to the SC. He will retire from the judiciary in October next year. If appointed chief justice, he will serve for one year.

The applicants – all sitting justices – will no longer be subjected to public interviews.

The JBC earlier said it would “dispense with public interviews of senior SC justices vying for the position, without prejudice to closed-door interviews by the members of the JBC.”

Guevarra had said that the justices who received automatic nomination – the five most senior justices – and magistrates with a minimum of five years at the SC are exempted from the public interview.

The JBC adopted the rule in response to the SC’s expressing its sense that “senior justices of the (SC) vying for the chief justice position should be exempted from public interviews.”