JBC names 4 nominees for deputy ombudsman

MANILA, Philippines—The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has come up with its shortlist of nominees for the position of Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon.

The shortlist which would be submitted to President Benigno Aquino III includes Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Commissioner Gerard Mosquera, Ombudsman Graft Investigator Roque Dator, Commission on Elections (Comelec) director Ferdinand Rafanan, and Ombudsman consultant Arthur Melchor Carandang.

The JBC screened all the nominees for the post vacated by Francis Jardeleza who was appointed as Solicitor General.

Mosquera, an Ateneo law graduate and Utopia Fraternity member, got the highest number of votes (seven votes) from among the eight-member JBC.

Dator, an ex-seminarian and graduate of the University of Santo Tomas College of Law, received six votes.

Rafanan and Carandang both received five votes each. Rafanan was a former Comelec Law Director and a graduate of the University of the Philippines College of Law while Carandang is currently a consultant of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.

The JBC members include Chief Justice Renato Corona as chair, Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, Sen. Francis Escudero, Iloilo Rep. and Justice Committee chair Niel Tupas Jr., lawyer Milagros Fernan-Cayosa of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, lawyer Jose Mejia from the academe, retired Supreme Court Justice Regino Hermosisima and private sector representative and retired appellate court Justice Aurora Lagman.