MANILA — The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has reset the voting for the shortlist of candidates vying for Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to Friday.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, JBC ex-officio vice chairman, said the council was supposed to hold the voting on Monday.
“Yes, (we) reset (it) to Aug. 24 (Friday) to give more time for the JBC to examine all the documents and deliberate,” Guevarra said in a text message sent to Philippine News Agency (PNA).
The shortlist will then be endorsed to President Rodrigo Duterte for approval.
The JBC is constitutionally mandated to screen and vet nominees to the President for vacant posts in the judiciary and the offices of the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman.
On Thursday, the five aspirants namely SC Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Andres Reyes Jr., and Judge Virginia Tejano-Ang of the Regional Trial Court Branch 1 in Tagum City, Davao del Norte has faced the JBC in a public interview.
The contents of the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth were among the issues raised by members of the JBC during the public interview for aspirants vying for the Chief Justice post.
Three of the applicants — de Castro, Peralta, Bersamin — were automatic candidates for the post, being among the five most senior magistrates of the High Court, while Reyes, who accepted the nomination for Chief Justice after being endorsed by former JBC member and retired Sandiganbayan justice Raul Victorino.
The post became vacant after Maria Lourdes Sereno was ousted by the SC en banc, voting 8-6, through quo warranto proceedings.
The quo warranto petition sought the nullification of Sereno’s appointment as Chief Justice for her failure to comply with the requirements to qualify for the position.
The failure of ousted Chief Sereno to meet this 10-SALN requirement was among the grounds cited by the SC in granting the quo warranto petition against her.
The petition sought to void Sereno’s appointment as Chief Justice in 2012 due to her failure to submit before the JBC her SALNs she was supposed to have filed during her tenure as law professor of the University of the Philippines (UP).
De Castro, Bersamin and Peralta were among the six justices asked by ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno to inhibit from the deliberation on the quo warranto petition filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida, which was eventually granted by the Court in a decision issued last May 11. The decision became final on June 19. (Christopher Lloyd Caliwan/PNA)
