MANILA, Philippines—Two Court of Appeals Justices have declined their nominations for the Chief Justice post.
Records showed that Cebu based Court of Appeals Associate Justice Gabriel Ingles and another Appeals Court Justice Magdangal De Leon declined their nomination. Aside from the two, Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa formally declined his nomination for the top judicial post.
“The undersigned has received information that I have been nominated for the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Cut of the Republic of the Philippines. I respectfully decline the nomination,” Ochoa said in a letter to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) dated June 22, 2012.
Currently, there are already 15 candidates that declined their nomination. They are Supreme Court Associate Justices Mariano Del Castillo, Bienvenido Reyes and Estela Perlas Bernabe, Former Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr. Former Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla, Dean Rodolfo Robles, Prosecutor Marianito Sasondoncillo, Integrated Bar of the Philippines President Roan Libarios and former Senator Rene Saguisag.
There are three other nominees–two Justices and a lower court judge who declined and requested the JBC to exclude their names from the list.