PHNO-HL: CJ NOMINEES: GIBO DECLINES, PALACE BETS COY, AS MANY AS 45 NOMINATED

CJ NOMINEES: GIBO DECLINES, PALACE BETS COY, AS MANY AS 45
NOMINATED
MANILA, JUNE 22,
2012 (TRIBUNE) Written by Benjamin B. Pulta - Perceived pets of
Malacañang for the vacated post of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are yet to
formally convey their acceptance of their nomination to the Judicial and Bar
Council (JBC) while four prominent lawyers including bar topnotcher and
former Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. (photo) declined their
nominations.

Teodoro, who made an unsuccessful bid for the presidency in
the 2010 national elections is a cousin of President Aquino and had been
recommended to the chief justice post by lawyer Jose Mallari.

He declined
through a letter dated June 19.
The three other lawyers who sought to be stricken off the shortlist were
Integrated Bar of the Philippines president Roan Libarios along with nominees
Marianito Sasondoncillo and Rodolfo Robles.

In a report of the collegial
body sent to media, the JBC said out of 45 nominees covered by their report, a
majority, 28, have yet to accept their recommendation to the list.

The 28
who have yet to accept the nomination include supposed frontrunners Senior
Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Solicitor
General Francis Jardeleza and Bureau of Internal Revenue (BIR)
Commissioner
Kim Jacinto Henares.

Two of President Benigno Aquino's appointees to the
high court, Associate Justices Lourdes Sereno and Estela Perlas-Bernabe have
likewise yet to accept their nomination, the JBC report indicated.

Aside
from Carpio the four other most senior associate justices of the high court
were, under the JBC rules, are deemed automatically nominated.

Of these
five, only senior associate Justice Arturo Brion, an appointee of former
President Gloria Arroyo has accepted the nomination.

Aside from Brion and
Carpio, the five most senior associate justices automatically included in the
nomination process are Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Diosdado
Peralta and Teresita Leonardo-De Castro.

Another magistrate, who is not
among the five most senior justices, Roberto Abad, has accepted his nomination
by University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law Dean Nilo Divino and former
senator Rene Saguisag.

Saguisag himself is a nominee and is among the 28
who have yet to accept the recommendation.

Other legal figures who have
accepted their nominations were women's rights advocate Katrina Legarda who was
recommended by no less than seven individuals.

University of the
Philippines law dean Raul Pangalangan and Commission on Elections commissioner
Rene V. Sarmiento have likewise submitted their conformity to their nomination
along with Ateneo law professor Cesar Villanueva and former San Juan
representative Ronaldo Zamora.

On the other hand, among the 28 who are
yet to accept their nomination are newspaper columnist Teodoro L. Locsin Jr.,
former solicitor general Frank Chavez,Alexander Padilla, Dean Amado Valdez, ,
and Court of Appeals Associate Justice Japar Dimaampao,

Four figures from
the academe Marvic Leonen of the University of the Philippines, Andres Bautista
of the Far Eastern University Institute of Law , Hilarion Aquino (of the San
Beda College of Law) also have yet to accept their nominations.
Seven have so
far accepted their nominations who are Brion, Legarda, Villanueva, University of
the Philippines (UP) College of Law Dean Raul C. Pangalangan, Atty. Rafael A.
Morales, SC Associate Justice Roberto A. Abad, and Commission on Elections
(Comelec) Commissioner Rene V. Sarmiento.

Meanwhile, nominated on Monday
were former San Juan City Rep. and erstwhile Executive Secretary Ronaldo B.
Zamora; Atty. Vicente R. Velasquez, chairman of the government negotiating panel
with the National Democratic Front (NDF) and Department of Health (DOH)
Undersecretary Alexander Padilla; and former Department of National Defense
(DND) Secretary Gilberto C. Teodoro Jr.

Disqualified were Jocelyn C.
Esquivel, a nurse by professional training, and former Malabon City Regional
Trial Court (RTC) Branch 73 Judge Florentino V. Floro.

The Judicial and
Bar Council (JBC) has extended until July 2, 2012 the period within which to
accept the application and nomination for the chief magistrate of the highest
court of the land.

The JBC will submit to Aquino its shortlist of
nominees of three to four names for possible appointment to the fifth highest
position in the land on July 30, 2012.

Bagong Henerasyon Rep. Bernadette
Herrera-Dy welcomed the nomination of three lady justices of the Supreme Court
as the next chief justice, saying that this development could lead to the
appointment of the first woman to head the High Court.

Herrera-Dy also
congratulated the individuals and organizations behind the nomination of the
three lady justices for supporting the growing clamor for the appointment of the
first Filipina to head the judiciary.

However, Herrera-Dy clarified that
making judicial history with the designation of a woman as chief justice should
not be misconstrued as the principal consideration for such
appointment.

"The three lady justices are all brilliant lawyers who
possess unblemished personal and professional records. Their integrity as
officers of the judiciary is beyond question," she said.

Herrera-Dy, vice
chairman of the House Committee on Welfare of Children, urged Associate Justices
Teresita Leonardo-De Castro; Ma. Lourdes Sereno and Estela Perlas-Bernabe to
accept their "well-deserved nomination."

Last Monday, 1991 Bar topnotcher
Gregorio M. Batiller Jr. submitted the nomination of Bernabe to the Judicial and
Bar Council which will recommend to Malacanang three nominees to the vacant SC
post.

Bernabe, a scholar from the Ateneo de Manila University, rose from
the ranks in the judiciary and started as technical assistant in the Office of
the Supreme Court administrator.

An Aquino appointee and a consistent
awardee of judicial excellence honors, she spent 16 years continuously serving
as presiding judge of Metropolitan and Regional Trial Courts and spent two years
as technical assistant in the Office of the Supreme Court administrator in her
early years of law practice.

An appointee of the Arroyo administration,
De Castro was former presiding justice of the Sandiganbayan before her promotion
to the High Tribunal. Charlie V. Manalo, Efren B. Chavez



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