Congress underrepresented at the JBC, Senator Arroyo tells Supreme Court

: Supreme Court Justice Diosdado M. Peralta (seated center at the High Bench) presides over the Supreme Court’s oral arguments on Wednesday, August 2, 2012, on the motion for reconsideration filed by Office of the Solicitor General representing Senator Francis Joseph G. Escudero and Rep. Niel C. Tupas, Jr., on the Court’s July 17, 2012 decision on GR No. 202242, Francisco I. Chavez v. Judicial and Bar Council, which held that only one member of Congress can sit as representative in the JBC deliberations. (Seated from left) Also participating in the oral arguments are SC Justices Bienvenido L. Reyes, Jose Portugal Perez, Roberto A. Abad, Lucas P. Bersamin, Peralta, Mariano C. Del Castillo, Martin S. Villarama, Jr., Jose Catral Mendoza, and Estela M. Perlas-Bernabe. Appearing before them is Senator Joker P. Arroyo. Caption by Jay B. Rempillo, Photo by Francis N. Gutierrez/CONTRIBUTED PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—Congress is under represented at the Judicial and Bar Council, Senator Joker Arroyo told members of the Supreme Court Thursday.

During the oral arguments, Arroyo, who is arguing on behalf of the Senate, pointed out that with two representatives at the JBC, it is still not Congress but the President of the Philippines who is still more powerful.

Arroyo explains that it is the President who appoints the four regular members of the JBC and he is also represented by the Secretary of Justice while Congress only has two representatives and is currently being questioned.

“We have very minimal influence because we are only two,” Arroyo told the high court.

The JBC is constitutionally mandated to screen applicants to the Chief Justice post.

Under Section 8 Article 8 of the 1987 Constitution, the JBC shall be composed of “the Chief Justice as ex officio Chairman, the Secretary of Justice, and a representative of the Congress as ex officio Members, a representative of the Integrated Bar, a professor of law, a retired Member of the Supreme Court, and a representative of the private sector.”

Assistant Solicitor General Romano Del Rosario, on the other hand said “seven”, under the Constitution simply refers to the number of agencies that should be part of the JBC, not number of representative per sector.

But former Solicitor-General Francisco Chavez argued that “‘a’ means one, single, solitary, as simple as that. Judicial inquiry is already complete. There is no need for us to go to the extrinsi means.”

“It is true that there is no need to say seven because there is no need to say the obvious,” Chavez said.