PDI exclusive interview with President Benigno Aquino lll held in Malacanang.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ JOAN BONDOC
The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) is set to ask the Supreme Court to nullify President Benigno Aquino III’s appointment of two associate justices to the Sandiganbayan.
In a 27-page petition on Monday, the IBP, a mandatory organization of all lawyers in the Supreme Court’s Roll of Attorneys, said Mr. Aquino violated the Constitution when he appointed to the Sandiganbayan Cebu City Branch 9 Regional Trial Court Geraldine Faith Econg and Undersecretary Michael Frederick L. Musngi of the Office of Special Concerns at the Office of the President.
The petition, which was approved by its board of governors, will be submitted to the high court Tuesday.
The IBP said Econg and Musngi should be restrained from exercising their duties and functions as Sandiganbayan justices.
According to the IBP, Mr. Aquino violated Section 9, Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution when he did not appoint anyone from the shortlist submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to fill the position of 16 Sandiganbayan Associate Justice.
After Mr. Aquino signed into law Republic Act 10660 or the Act Strengthening Further for Functional and Structural Organization of the Sandiganbayan, two more divisions have been added to the original five anti-graft divisions thus creating six vacancies for associate justice.
The JBC submitted six separate shortlist where Mr. Aquino should choose one from each of the list.
Mr. Aquino, however, disregarded one of the five shortlists and appointed two from another shortlist.
“While the Constitution grants the President leeway to exercise his discretion in appointments to the judiciary by requiring the JBC to submit a list of at least three nominees for every vacancy, this discretion is necessarily restricted by requiring him to select only from the list submitted and to select only a single nominee considering the vacancy is similarly solitary,” the petition stated.
“In the questioned appointments, President Aquino violated Section 9, Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution when he did not appoint anyone from the shortlist submitted by the JBC for the vacancy for the 16th associate justice of the Sandiganbayan; and appointed Undersecretary Musngi and Judge Econg, whose names were from the same shortlist submitted for the position of the 21st associate justice of the Sandiganbayan.”
The IBP said Mr. Aquino’s action is a “culpable violation of the Constitution,” which is a ground for impeachment of a President.
“To be sure, the acts of respondents set a dangerous precedent which opens the door to abuse and oppression. These are the very evils proscribed by our Constitution, and are a clear act of grave abuse of discretion subject to the Honorable Court’s review,” it stressed.
Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, chair of the seven-member JBC, allowed the questionable appointment and even administered the oaths of office of three of the six justices last Jan. 25.
The JBC submitted to the Palace in October last year six separate shortlists for each of the six vacancies in the Sandiganbayan emanating from Republic Act 10660 (An Act Strengthening the Functional and Structural Organization of the Sandiganbayan), which created two new divisions in the anti-graft court.
Joining the IBP in filing the petition are the nominees in the shortlist ignored by Mr. Aquino, namely, Judges Philip Aguinaldo, Reynaldo Alhambra, Danilo Cruz, Benjamin Pozon, Danilo Sandoval and Salvador Timbang Jr. RAM/rga
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