MANILA, Philippines -- (UPDATE) A search committee has been formed by a coalition of civil society groups to intervene in the selection process for new justices of the Supreme Court, a member of a group that is participating in the process said.

Lawyer Marlon Manuel, coordinator of the Alternative Law Group, said his organization, the Libertas, Philippine Association of Law Schools and Transparency and Accountability Network were concerned over the pending retirement of seven justices in the high court and whose replacements would be named by one President.

They formed themselves into the Supreme Court Appointments Watch (SCAW) in response to Chief Justice Reynato Puno?s call for private organizations to participate in the search for candidates for the high tribunal.

"Never in the post-Marcos history of the Supreme Court has a single President been able to appoint nearly all of the sitting justices. The independence of the third branch is at stake," said Manuel at Friday?s forum on ?An Arroyo Appointed Supreme Court: Is Independence Possible??

At the same forum, constitutionalist Father Joaquin Bernas said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo might be expected to be ?deliberate? in appointing Supreme Court justices because she will be losing her immunity from suit when her term ends in 2010.

"The President will be deliberate in selecting the justices? That's entirely possible. She will lose her immunity from suit when her term ends in 2010," Bernas said.

However, Bernas said if a criminal case is filed against Arroyo after she steps down, it will start with the prosecutor. Thus, "[The progress of the case] will depend upon the aggressiveness of the prosecutor and independence of the judge."

Manuel said members of the SCAW search committee would be Bernas, retired Court of Appeals Associate Justice Hilarion Aquino, University of the Philippines Professor Solita Collas-Monsod, National Citizens' Movement for Free Elections (NAMFREL) Chairman Edward Go, Ambassador Albert Del Rosario, Moro lawyer Raissa Jajurie and Dean Andres Bautista, President and Chairman of the Philippine Association of Law Schools.

The committee will conduct an open and transparent search for qualified candidates for the Supreme Court and submit the names to the Judicial and Bar Council, Manuel said.

Next year, the Supreme Court justices who will retire are Associate Justices Ruben Reyes, Adolfo Azcuna, Dante Tinga, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Leonardo Quisumbing, and Minita Chico-Nazario. Associate Justice Alicia Austria-Martinez will retire this year.

Of the 15 Supreme Court justices only Puno, Quisumbing, and Santiago were not appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Upon Quisumbing and Santiago's retirement next year, only Puno, who will retire in 2010, will be the non-Arroyo appointee left.

Meanwhile, Bernas said the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) should not keep information from the public and disclose not just the shortlist of candidates that it submits to Malacañang but also how its members voted.

Currently, the JBC shortlist is sent to the president and its voting is kept confidential.

"The JBC should make public the voting because of the public's right to information concerning public interest," Bernas said.

If the Supreme Court ruled that the votes of members of the Movie and Television Review and Classification Board should be disclosed, "what more the votes of the JBC which is more important than the censorship board," Bernas said.

The JBC was created by the 1987 Constitution and is tasked to screen candidates to the judiciary and the Office of the Ombudsman. It narrows down the list of candidates and sends the shortlist to the president to choose from.