COA chief Aguinaldo eyes SC seat

COA chairman Michael Aguinaldo. FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — Michael Aguinaldo, chair of the Commission on Audit (COA), accepted on Friday his nomination by retired Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin to be the next associate justice of the Supreme Court.

In a letter to Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo and the members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), Aguinaldo said he would also apply for the seat to be vacated by Associate Justice Rosmari Carandang, who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Jan. 9, 2022.

“Aguinaldo’s long and varied experience in the public and private sectors proves his competence, integrity, probity and independence that eminently render him fit and deserving of appointment as associate justice of the Supreme Court,” Bersamin said in a letter to Gesmundo dated Oct. 14.

Aguinaldo, who was also appointed by former President Benigno Aquino III to head the COA in 2015, will end his seven-year term in February 2022 after an acrimonious showdown with President Duterte, the person empowered to appoint members of the high court.

A bar topnotcher in 1992, the COA chair is a faculty member of the Ateneo de Manila University School of Law and was once a partner at Romulo Mabanta Buenaventura Sayoc & De Los Angeles, one of the top law firms in the country.