Justice Secretary Leila de Lima. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines—Justice Secretary Leila De Lima admitted that she “will not be happy” if she would be excluded from the shortlist of candidates for the next chief justice that will be submitted to President Benigno Aquino III.
“I will not be happy if I will not be included in the shortlist to the President but I will find out if there is a remedy,” De Lima told members of the Judicial and Bar Council members at the start Tuesday of public interviews of candidates for the post of Chief Justice.
De Lima said it was important to restore the public’s complete trust on the Judiciary. “If ever appointed, being a lady justice,’’ she said “I would have the passion to discharge the mandate conscientiously.”
Aside from being a lady, she is also one of the youngest candidate for the post which she said is an advantage.
“I would have the energy and dynamism to attend to the needed reforms,” she said.
JBC members grilled De Lima for about an hour and a half on issues about her independence and pending disbarment case against her.
Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr. questioned De Lima on her close ties with Aquino.
“I do not want to be judged at this point that I will be beholden to the appointing authority,” De Lima said.
Presiding officer and Supreme Court Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta questioned De Lima about her pending disbarment case.
He said “disbarment is a long process. If you are appointed and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines’ recommendation whether to dismiss, suspend, disbar will come to the court, you can imagine the problem we will confront if you are the sitting chief justice. What are we going to do? Is it more prudent to let us decide the disbarment proceedings before anything else?”
De Lima said she would have wanted that, adding it is beyond her control.
However, she expressed confidence that the case against her would be dismissed.
De Lima has been slapped with a disbarment case after she called then Chief Justice Renato Corona as a “walking constitutional crisis.”
If appointed, she said she would strengthen the independence not only of the Supreme Court but the lower courts’ as well.