Lagman to JBC: Withdraw nominations of 3 magistrates
Associate Justices Teresita Leonardo De Castro, Lucas Bersamin and Diosdado Peralta. INQUIRER file photos
The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) should withdraw its decision to include Justices Teresita de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, and Lucas Bersamin in the shortlist of nominees for the vacant position of chief justice, an opposition lawmaker rallied on Friday.
READ: 3 SC associate justices in impeach rap named in shortlist for CJ
Lamenting that the JBC acted with “indecent alacrity” in shortlisting the three, Albay 1st District Rep. Edcel Lagman made the call, adding that the Council should also reopen the filing of applications for the position of chief justice.
“The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) acted with indecent alacrity in shortlisting on Friday morning Justices Teresita De Castro, Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin as nominees for the vacant position of chief justice,” Lagman said in a statement.
“The JBC is called upon to withdraw momentarily the shortlist and re-open the filing of applications for the position of chief justice,” he also said.
He said the JBC should have considered the disqualification of the justices in view of the pending impeachment cases they filed on Thursday against the De Castro, Bersamin, Peralta and four others who voted to kick out former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno through a quo warranto petition.
READ: SC justices who ousted Sereno face impeachment complaints | Opposition solons file impeachment raps vs 7 Supreme Court justices
Lagman underscored that the impeachment cases are “akin to or even more serious than an administrative case whose pendency bars the appointment of any applicant to a judicial position.”
“The rationalization that the impeachment complaints have not matured to a pending case is flawed because upon the filing of the said impeachment complaints and before they are dismissed, said impeachment complaints are deemed pending just like unresolved criminal and administrative cases,” he argued. /jpv
LOOK: Impeach complaints vs anti-Sereno SC associate justices
