Move on, SC, JBC urged

New Supreme Court Justice Francis Jardeleza. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The Supreme Court and the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) should focus on the job ahead and move past issues surrounding the appointment of Associate Justice Francis Jardeleza, according to an observer and friend of the high court.

Former Commission on Elections Commissioner Rene Sarmiento called on the high court and the JBC, an independent constitutional body that screens nominees to the Supreme Court and the Office of the Ombudsman, to let go of issues related to Jardeleza’s posting last month.

“The JBC and the Supreme Court have to move on. Statesmanship should now be the order of the day,” said Sarmiento, now in private practice.

“Let us now transcend our misunderstandings, be mutually forgiving, work together by setting our sights on challenges that lie ahead of us,” said the former elections official, one of the drafters of the 1987 Constitution who donated his copies of its original Filipino and English prints to the high court in May.

President Benigno Aquino III named Jardeleza the 15th member of the high court on Aug. 19, just hours after the court en banc granted the former Solicitor General’s petition questioning his exclusion from the JBC shortlist.

The ruling threw out an integrity question that Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, the JBC chair, raised against Jardeleza over his handling of the Philippine arbitration case against China.

On Monday, the JBC appealed the ruling that favored Jardeleza, citing how “certain doctrines and findings” of the Supreme Court decision posed a “dangerous precedent” on the interpretation of its mandate. The body asserted that it had the exclusive right to name nominees to the high court.

Sarmiento said the issue was already moot as Jardeleza is already dispensing of his duties as a member of the high court.

“With the appointment and swearing in of Justice Jardeleza, with the favorable verdict he received from the Supreme Court, with him now participating in the Court’s business and voting (as in the case of dismissed Sandiganbayan Justice Gregory Ong), the appeal is now rendered moot,” said Sarmiento.

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