Justice Secretary Leila DeLima, BIR’s Kim Henares and Katrina Legarda
As of Wednesday, the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) had received 11 nominations and applications for Chief Justice. Aside from Leila de Lima, among those recommended by various groups and individuals were Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, BIR’s Kim Henares and prominent lawyer and women’s rights advocate Katrina Legarda and retired Judge Manuel Siayngco Jr.
Also nominated were former Ateneo de Manila University law school dean Cesar Villanueva, Inquirer columnist and former University of the Philippines’ College of Law dean Raul Pangalangan, former Laguna Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Marianito Sasondoncillo, lawyer Nepomuceno Aparis and Rafael Morales, a managing partner of the Sycip, Salazar, Hernandez & Gatmaitan law firm.
Both Pangalangan and Legarda had sent letters to the JBC accepting their nominations.
A certain Jocelyn Esquivel, who identified herself as a nurse, submitted an application. Almost certainly, she would be disqualified, as the Constitution stated that justices of the Supreme Court “must have been for 15 years or more, a judge of a lower court or engaged in the practice of law in the Philippines.”
Individuals seeking to serve on the Supreme Court should also have “proven competence, integrity, probity and independence.”
The five most senior justices on the Supreme Court—acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion and Diosdado Peralta—have been automatically nominated for Chief Justice. Marlon Ramos