SC hopefuls talk of stress-busting tips, pet peeves

From the pet peeves and stress-busting tips of judges to the biggest dreams and frustrations of veteran lawyers, one of the country’s most critical job interviews proved to be an all too revealing session.

Hilarious quips, unexpected remarks and surprising pleas periodically broke the serious tone on the first day of the Judicial and Bar Council’s (JBC) interviews of candidates for the Supreme Court slot to be vacated by Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr. upon his retirement on Jan. 16.

When Justice Secretary Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa identified the slow court process as one of the top problems in the judiciary, the feisty retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez agreed, saying no one else should be blamed but lawyers themselves.

Cool it

Gutierrez, the JBC executive committee chair, told the amused crowd: “Lawyers should be blamed. They abuse Rule 65 for every order the court issues. It takes years and years before this incident can be resolved.”

The rule allows litigants to file appeals against lower court decisions by invoking “grave abuse of discretion amounting to lack or excess of jurisdiction.”

“Lawyers are the primary reason why there is always a delay in the delivery of justice, and the judiciary is always being blamed,” Gutierrez said, getting Caguioa to agree that law practitioners should be punished, at least administratively, for such “frivolous petitions.”

Noting how another candidate, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, admitted to raising her voice during stressful moments, Gutierrez shared a  courtroom experience that has spanned more than three decades.

“You said sometimes you raise your voice. The moment you reach that kind of emotion, go inside your chamber, drink a glass of cold water, and face the mirror,” said Gutierrez, prompting laughter from the spectators.

“And then call the two lawyers (from both sides) and give them a dressing down,” said Gutierrez, who first became a trial court judge in 1983 and capped her career as Supreme Court justice from December 2000 to February 2008.

Singing and badminton

For Tang, the question on how to handle stress led to a confession: “I do a lot of singing at home. And I play badminton.”

Still on the subject of speeding up legal proceedings, another candidate, Joe Santos Bisquera, broached the idea of striking the motion for reconsideration (MR) out of legal procedure.

“Smart practitioners make use of this to tire the opposing party. I would recommend for the Supreme Court to amend the rules and eliminate MRs,” he told the JBC.

But Gutierrez said such method of relief may not be completely abolished, as some MRs have merits. She said some judges themselves contributed to the snail’s pace. “If they are lazy, no number of rules can move them,” she said.

Bypass survivor

Asked about legal education, Bisquera issued his critique of the country’s law schools.

“[There are] law professors who do not know how to teach. The proliferation of green jokes and irrelevant stories continue to bug law schools,” he said.

An unsuccessful high court applicant in 2012, Bisquera got his second chance to declare his achievements as a longtime private law practitioner. One highlight, he said, was that within a year as law dean,  he improved the bar passing rate at the University of Manila from zero to 75 percent.

While turning 69 in October, just a year shy of retirement age in the judiciary, Bisquera, a triple bypass survivor, also told the JBC that he still had the energy and was in a good health.

God’s will

But a curiosity in his credentials caught the eye of JBC member Menardo Guevarra, a 1985 law topnotcher: Bisquera took home honors in school—cum laude and at the University of the East Law School, summa cum laude in the same school when he took up accountancy, magna cum laude at the University of the Philippines when he took his master’s in Business Administration.

Despite such  achievements, Guevarra noted Bisquera’s poor scores in licensure tests: “In the bar exams, your score was 76. In the CPA board exams, 77, considering your very high academic performances at university.”

The multisuffixed Bisquera—MBA, LLM, LLB, BBA-CPA—attributed this to God’s will.

“It was the Lord’s way to tell me ‘bawas-bawasan mo naman ang yabang mo (reduce your vanity),’” said the lawyer, describing his poor showing in the exams as humbling moments in his life.

“I submit with all humility that I did not succeed in the CPA and the bar, and I accept that,” he said.

In closing, Bisquera made a plea to the magistrates, seemingly submitting to the possibility that he might not make the cut anew.

“I am realistic in saying that, of the 16 candidates, I don’t have political backing, I am not talking to any of the powers that be,” he said.

Bisquera has been applying for various positions in the judiciary since becoming a member of the bar at age 47.

“I have been applying for a lot of positions [in the judiciary], but there has been no opportunity to be a judge. Is it possible for me to offer my services?  Give me the most problematic trial court in Manila, and I submit, if I cannot move fast in one year, I will resign,” he said.