2 women top JBC nominees for Visayas Ombudsman

MANILA, Philippines — Two women topped the Judicial and Bar Council’s voting on Monday for nominees to succeed Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol, whose term expires on Thursday.

Five nominees made it to the JBC shortlist, namely Geraldine Faith Econg, Carla Juris Narvios-Tanco, Paul Elmer Clemente, Vincent Gengos Jr. and Gilbert Kintanar.

Econg and Tanco obtained five votes each from the seven-member JBC while the others got four votes each.

According to the Supreme Court website, Econg heads the Project Management Office, which was created by the high tribunal to coordinate and manage the technical and administrative aspects of the judicial reform program implementation, particularly the implementation of the Action Program for Judicial Reform (APJR).

She is also a member of the high court’s committee on gender responsiveness.

She was also appointed by Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno as head of the regional court administration office in Cebu but the appointment was revoked because the creation of the office did not have the required approval of the Supreme Court en banc.

Econg is a retired judge of the Cebu City regional trial court. Among the cases she handled were the parricide case against Ruben Ecleo Jr. and the lot claims filed against the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Tanco is acting director of the public assistance and corruption prevention bureau of the Office of the Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas.

Gengos is a member of the Presidential Commission on Good Government while Clemente is a director at the Land Registration Authority, an agency of the Department of Justice.

Kintanar is the chief executive staff at the office of Commission on Audit chair Grace Pulido-Tan.

Under the Constitution, a deputy ombudsman must be a natural born citizen of the Philippines, at least 40 years old, a member of the Philippine Bar for at least 10 years and must not be a candidate for any elective office in the most recent elections.

A deputy ombudsman, whose rank is equivalent to a member of the constitutional commission, has a fixed term of seven years without reappointment. He or she receives an P85,000 monthly salary.

The JBC screens nominees to vacancies in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals and the Ombudsman and his deputies. The council is chaired by Sereno.