Danding Cojuangco lawyer nominated chief justice

Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza. INQUIRER PHOTO

Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, a former counsel of the food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. (SMC), has been nominated to replace ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona, a member of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) disclosed Thursday.

Lawyer Jose Mejia, who represents the academe in the JBC, said Jardeleza was recommended by University of the Philippines’College of Law dean Danilo Concepcion.

“The nominees or applicants would have to meet the minimum requirements (for Chief Justice) before their names are included in the long list which will come out on June 18,” Mejia said in a phone interview.

Other nominees to the top magistrate post are prominent women’s rights advocate Katrina Legarda and former Ateneo de Manila University law school dean Cesar Villanueva, according to Mejia.

Senior justices

Mejia said the five most senior justices of the Supreme Court—Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion and Diosdado Peralta—were automatically nominated.

“But they have to signify their intention. They have to write the JBC and submit an application,” he said.

Mejia said Legarda’s name was submitted by a certain Myrna Feliciano while Villanueva was nominated by lawyer Ramon Torralba.

Before President Benigno Aquino appointed him Solicitor General last February, Jardeleza served as the Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon. He replaced Jose Anselmo Cadiz, who resigned from his post.

Jardeleza also served as senior vice president and general counsel of SMC, a corporation controlled by powerful businessman Eduardo “Danding” Cojuangco, an uncle of the President who is invariably referred to as a crony of the late dictator Ferdinand Marcos.

Coco farmers’ opposition

There was considerable opposition from coconut farmers’ groups to Jardeleza’s appointment as Solicitor General because of his close association with Cojuangco whose 20 percent holdings in SMC they claim to have been illegally acquired with coconut levy funds.

Justices Carpio and Velasco are Jardeleza’s “brods” in the Sigma Rho fraternity as are Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Franklin Drilon and Edgardo Angara. The latter three were among the 20 senators who voted to convict Corona for his failure to declare some P180 in dollar and peso deposits.

Legarda, a known advocate for the passage of the reproductive health and divorce bills, came into national prominence when she became the lawyer of the 11-year-old girl who was raped by former Zamboanga del Norte Representative Romeo Jalosjos  in 1997.

She also worked for the landmark Supreme Court ruling which recognized the “battered wife syndrome” as a valid defense of a woman who was meted the death sentence for killing her husband.

Villanueva is a member of the Fraternal Order of Utopia, a fraternity at the Ateneo law school which also includes Corona and Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa among its members.

In London, the President on Thursday said he would prefer for Justice Secretary Leila de Lima to remain in the Cabinet amid reports that De Lima’s name was being floated as a possible Chief Justice.

When reporters clarified if what he wanted was for De Lima to inhibit as JBC vice chair, Mr. Aquino said, “inhibiting if she gets nominated.”

He asked reporters not to press him on De Lima as he had not talked to her about it.

Mr. Aquino also stressed he would abide by the list of nominees for Chief Justice from the JBC and would not appoint someone who is not on it.

Appellate court vacancies

Meanwhile, the JBC has submitted to Mr. Aquino the names of 14 candidates for the three vacancies in the Court of Appeals.

The JBC has recommended for appointment to the appellate court Pampanga Regional Trial Court Judge Jonel Mercado, Manila RTC Judge Ruben Reynaldo Roxas and Assistant Solicitor General Roman del Rosario. With Juliet Labog-Javellana