Justice Secretary Leila de Lima
MANILA, Philippines–Justice Secretary Leila de Lima on Friday admitted she was not ruling out accepting a nomination for the position of Chief Justice but said she prefers to stay in the executive branch to finish important tasks.
“If you ask me if I am aspiring for that position right know, [I’ll say that] I am not aspiring for any other position. I don’t rule out anything. I don’t want to say now that if I’m nominated, I will decline. But right now, I have this position a very critical position, an important position. I still have a lot of things to do. Just look at those electoral sabotage cases [pending in courts],”
De Lima added that she will consult the President if somebody nominates her to the Supreme Court. “I actually defer to the wishes of the President. If he wants me to accept, I will accept. If he’s considering me for the position, then I respect that.”
The Secretary pointed out that she never even aspired to be Department of Justice chief, adding, “You know my career, don’t you? I never [aspired]. This present position I have I never thought I would get this. I really don’t know, I’ll cross the bridge when I reach there. It is que sera sera (what will be, will be). If something’s really for me, then it will be for me.”
As Justice Secretary, De Lima is a member of the Judicial and Bar Council, which nominates candidates to vacancies in the Supreme Court.
Aside from De Lima others whose names have been floated to replace recently ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona are Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares, Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza and Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Franklin Drilon, among others.
As a JBC member, De Lima said the “ideal situation” is for an “insider,” someone from among the incumbent Supreme Court associate justices, being named the next Chief Justice. However, she added that the “insider-outsider debate” should be left to the JBC since it was in charge of the nomination process.
“First, let us allow the JBC to initiate the process. In fact on Monday, the JBC shall convene maybe to jump-start the process. Maybe the first step is publication so that nominations and applications will be accepted, and then followed by screening, interviews, deliberations and voting, before coming out with a shortlist for presentation to the President,” she said.
De Lima said she will be looking for three “ideals” in a nominee for Chief Justice, namely competence, integrity and “high sense” of independence.
The DOJ chief, who recently arrived from Switzerland after attending a United National Human Rights Council event, said she was glad and relieved that that the impeachment trial of Corona trial had concluded.
“My feeling is one of cautious relief. We are relieved because it is finished, that’s five months. We cannot deny that fact that some of our work was delayed. The health of the nation or the state was also affected. At least, it’s over. But we must not waste time in instituting reforms in our critical institutions,” De Lima said. “It’s important that those who are deserving (of the position) will be put in the short list from which the President will select,” she added.