PHNO-HL: ALLIES OF AQUINO, ARROYO URGED TO DECLINE CJ POST NOMINATIONS

ALLIES OF AQUINO, ARROYO URGED TO DECLINE CJ POST
NOMINATIONS

MANILA, JUNE 22,
2012 (TRIBUNE) Written by By Gerry Baldo and Angie M. Rosales -
To assure that the next Supreme Court chief justice is acceptable to the public
and be seen as independent, the allies of President Aquino and former President
Arroyo were urged yesterday to decline their nominations to the JBC
shortlist.

House Majority Leader Neptali Gonzales II, an ally of Aquino,
said the need to have an independent chief justice of the SC should start with
the nominees.

"The nominees associated with President Aquino and former
President Arroyo should not join the selection process and instead voluntarily
withdraw their nominations. This is for the good of the country," Gonzales said
yesterday in a chance interview.

He said the "sacrifice" on the part of
the nominees would help ensure the independence of the Supreme Court from
influential political figures.

Gonzales stressed that any appointee that
is identified with President Aquino could fuel wild speculation that Chief
Justice Renato Corona was removed because of a strong lobby from the Liberal
Party to replace him with an ally.

Gonzales was referring to acting Chief
Justice Antonio Carpio who is associated with Liberal Party president Mar
Roxas.
"Acting Chief Justice Carpio should be considered out of the race. The
President locked in himself not to appoint a candidate close to him because the
challenge for him is to appoint the next Chief Justice who is very much
qualified and has no connection with him," Gonzales said. The proof of the
pudding is in the eating, was how Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile described
the manner by which the JBC screening committee should handle the process of
choosing nominees for the next chief justice to be submitted to
Aquino.

Enrile was reacting to the plan of the JBC to amend its rules to
allow public access to interviews it will hold on the nominees to replace the
former Chief Justice who was recently convicted by the Senate impeachment
court.

"I'm okay with that because we will be able to see the competence
of the interviewer, those sitting in the JBC. And we will witness the
proficiency of the interviewee. But what good will it do? Those are just
questions. The person may be competent enough to answer those questions or even
be very proficient in English (language) but his knowledge on the position will
just be a hallow block, that is the danger," he commented.

Enrile said if
the JBC is serious in determining the competence of the nominees in the laws,
the council can consider subjecting them to a test similar to a bar
examination.

But more than any results in a written and oral exercises,
the Senate chief said the JBC should give more weight to the professional
background of the nominee, particularly the person's expertise or experience in
handling cases.

"Some may have just been office lawyers or academicians
or have practiced for only a limited period inside a courtroom. How experienced
are they in practicing law? What kind of cases they have handled so far in the
past? Were these cases controversial yet involved only corporation law or those
so-called collection cases. It's difficult to assess their know-how (if only
based on interviews)," he said.

Enrile, known to be a tax expert, said
that in his 12-year stint in practicing law before entering public office, he
was practically in court daily.

He boasted of having a spotless record in
handling cases, having won all those he defended before the court.
"Besides
my office work I'm a tax lawyer, corporation lawyer, I'm the one attending to
the trial of the cases (being handled by our law firm) and they range from civil
to criminal cases, various kinds of criminal cases – mostly murder, homicide and
even libel cases. That's why I'm used to (practicing law in) a courtroom," he
said.

A standoff, meanwhile, may brew over the need for senior justices
of the Supreme Court (SC) including Palace favorite Carpio to go through a
public interview of the JBC on applicants to the post.

A JBC official,
lawyer Jose Mejia, said no preferential treatment should be given to the five
most senior members of the SC who have been automatically included in the JBC
shortlist.

Aside from Carpio, the five other senior justices include
Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo de Castro, Arturo
Brion, and Diosdado Peralta. Only Brion has formally accepted the
nomination.

"The rule as far as I know if there is a need for an
interview you have to sit down for an interview. I know even Chief Justice
Renato Corona had to be interviewed," Mejia said referring to the JBC
proceedings in Baguio which culminated in Corona's nomination and subsequent
appointment as chief justice.

On the other hand, in the past, then
Associate Justices Reynato Puno, Leonardo Quisumbing, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago,
Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez and Carpio individually wrote the JBC informing the
body of their decision not to subject themselves to the process which resulted
in Puno taking over the post.

They were automatically nominated for the
Chief Justice position that was to be vacated by then Chief Justice Artemio
Panganiban.

Quisumbing explained that their decision not to attend the
public interview was in line with the Court resolution stating that there is no
need for sitting justices who are automatic nominees to the Chief Justice
position to undergo any interview.
Ynares-Santiago, on the other hand, said
there was no reason for the JBC to examine her fitness and integrity, as she
would not have been appointed to the SC if there were doubts on her
qualifications.

Panganiban, who was then the chairman of the JBC,
accepted the decision of the magistrates stressing that the JBC has no power to
compel anybody to attend the public interview.

But, Mejia said he is
unsure if the refusal of any nominee to participate in the public interview can
be a ground for disqualification.

Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., ex-officio
member of the JBC being the chairman of the House committee on justice, said the
close ties of nominees to President Aquino and Mrs. Arroyo will affect their
chances.

Some of the nominees who accepted their respective nomination
include SC Associate Justices Arturo Brion and Roberto Abad, La Salle Law School
founding Dean Jose Manuel Diokno, Comelec Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, retired
Judge Manuel Siyangco Jr., former Ateneo Law School Dean Cesar Villanueva,
former Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora.
Mejia added the live television
coverage of the public interview of nominees to the position of chief justice
will not necessarily include every applicants and will be up to media outfits to
determine the newsworthy candidates.

Mejia said media networks will be
accredited for the live coverage and will have the discretion who to
cover.

"The whole idea is to make the process transparent and make live
coverage available to the media. It's hard to second-guess the media but it
would be on your own lookout which ones you would want to cover. We can't compel
you to cover everyone," he told reporters .

Allowing selective coverage
is a departure from the earlier iguidelines imposed by the Supreme Court when it
granted in 2010 petitions seeking live coverage of the trial of the Maguindanao
massacre, where media outfits are required to air the entire proceedings - from
start of the hearing until the end.

Under the proposed guidelines only
one camera provided by the SC public information office would be allowed inside
the venue of the oral interview. The SC camera will then be hooked up directly
to the cameras of TV networks, which will transmit the footage to their
respective OB vans to be stationed outside the venue.

"This is the best
setup we can think of where the process can be more transparent to the public
with the least possible distraction," he explained. Mejia revealed that these
guidelines were still being finalized and could be approved by the JBC after two
weeks.

He also admitted there were initial concerns on the possibility
the nominees would be subjected to humiliation and harassment through
allegations that could come up during the interview.

"But it's a risk you
have to take when you decide to seek a top public position," he
stressed.
Some nominees for chief justice, he also revealed, have expressed
concern about the early publication of their names in media reports, believing
that the objective in their nomination could be dubious.

The number of
nominees have thus far reached 57 as of Thursday afternoon.

Of this
number, 13 have accepted their respective nomination, namely: SC Associate
Justices Arturo Brion and Roberto Abad, Atty. Soledad Cagampang-De Castro, Prof.
Jose Manuel Diokno II, Atty. Maria Carolina Katrina Legarda, Atty. Rafael
Morales, University of the Philippines College of Law Dean Raul Pangalangan,
Atty. Ferdinand Jose David Emmanuel Edralin Marcos Pijao Jr., Commission on
Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento, Atty. Manuel DJ Siayngco Jr., Atty.
Vicente Velasquez, Ateneo De Manila University College of Law Dean Cesar
Villanueva and former Executive Secretary and now San Juan City Rep. Ronaldo
Zamora.

Records from the JBC showed Del Castillo and former Senator Rene
Saguisag have declined their respective nomination for the chief justice
position.

Del Castillo has a pending impeachment case before the House of
Representatives for allegedly plagiarizing part of a court ruling from opinions
of international legal experts.

The SC cleared Del Castillo of any
wrongdoing after an investigation was conducted and his staff admitted to have
accidentally deleted footnotes for the quoted opinions of
experts.

However, the House of Representatives has yet to dismiss the
impeachment case against Del Castillo.

On the other hand, Saguisag wrote
to the JBC saying that he is already past the mandatory retirement age of 70 for
any member of the Judiciary.

Saguisag, who will turn 73 on Aug. 14, 2012,
said that there was already an opportunity for him to sit as SC justice in the
past but he turned down the appointment.

He explained that he already
considered as reward the opportunity that was given to him to serve his
country.
Saguisag was elected senator in 1987 and remained in the Senate
until 1992. Prior to his stint at the Senate, he was spokesman for the late
President Corazon Aquino.

Saguisag nominated two candidates for the Chief
Justice post, namely: SC Associate Justice Roberto Abad and former San Juan City
Rep. and erstwhile Executive Secretary Ronaldo Zamora who both accepted their
respective nomination.
Aside from Del Castillo and Saguisag, the other
nominees who declined their respective nomination are: SC Associate Justice
Estela Perlas-Bernabe; former Department of National Defense (DND) Secretary
Gilberto Teodoro Jr.; former Department of Energy (DOE) Secretary Raphael
Lotilla; Dean Rodolfo Robles; Prosecutor Marianito Sasondoncillo; and Integrated
Bar of the Philippines (IBP) president Roan Libarios.

The period of
application and nomination for the Chief Justice position will be until July 2,
2012.


Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2012 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All
rights reserved




PHILIPPINE
HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE


[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]



------------------------------------

-------------------------------------------------------------
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet

This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.

To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/

(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------Yahoo! Groups Links

<*> To visit your group on the web, go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/

<*> Your email settings:
Individual Email | Traditional

<*> To change settings online go to:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/phno/join
(Yahoo! ID required)

<*> To change settings via email:
phno-digest@yahoogroups.com
phno-fullfeatured@yahoogroups.com

<*> To unsubscribe from this group, send an email to:
phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com

<*> Your use of Yahoo! Groups is subject to:
http://docs.yahoo.com/info/terms/