Carpio, 4 others make it to JBC shortlist for CJ

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Lucas Bersamin, Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Andres Reyes Jr. made it to the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for the country’s next Chief Justice.

Following the JBC vote on Friday afternoon, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said all candidates received six votes each, except Reyes who got five.

“[The] short list [is] for transmittal to the Office of the President before the day is over,” Guevarra told reporters.

The five most senior members of the high court are traditionally nominated automatically whenever there is a vacancy in the post of Chief Justice.

Chief Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro’s retirement on Oct. 10 left Carpio, Bersamin, Peralta, Bernabe and Mariano del Castillo as the high court’s five most senior justices.

Nomination declined

Of the five, only Del Castillo declined nomination. He temporarily chaired Friday’s council meeting as Carpio, the acting Chief Justice, is a candidate.

Guevarra said the JBC conducted the balloting after a closed-door panel interview of Carpio and Bernabe.

The other justices were already interviewed in August, when they applied for the Chief Justice post following the ouster of Ma. Lourdes Sereno.

De Castro was eventually appointed Chief Justice.

The seven-member JBC, chaired by the Chief Justice, is the constitutional body tasked to screen and vet nominees to the judiciary and the offices of the Ombudsman and his deputies.

The other members of the council are the justice secretary, a member of either chamber of Congress, a retired Supreme Court justice, and representatives from the academe, Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the private sector.