SC asked to reconsider ruling on Aquino’s Sandigan appointments

The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has asked the Supreme Court to reconsider its earlier decision denying the screening body’s bid to intervene in the petition filed by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) which sought to nullify the appointments made by former President Benigno Aquino III to the Sandiganbayan.

In a 15-page motion for reconsideration, JBC said the high court erred when it dismissed its intervention due to lack of legal interest.

The JBC pointed out that they were the ones who submitted the shortlist of nominees to the Office of the President.

“It bears stressing that the Court itself recognized the inevitability of addressing the issue of the validity of the clustering of nominees by the JBC for a complete resolution of the case. It necessarily follows that the JBC should have been heard or given the opportunity to explain its act of clustering the nominees before declaring that it impinges upon the President’s power of appointment and, hence, unconstitutional,” the JBC said.

It insisted that they should have been given the opportunity to explain the clustering of nominees in the six vacant positions of Associate Justice of the Sandiganbayan.

JBC said that in revising its Internal Rules, there was no law violated nor grave abuse of discretion was committed, stressing that under Section 9 Article VIII of the Constitution the JBC is required to make a list of at least three nominees for every vacancy.

“Clearly, the JBC shall submit a list for every vacancy, which it did when it submitted six (6) short lists, as there were six (6) vacancies. Time and again, it has been repeatedly declared by this Court that where the law speaks in clear and categorical language, there is no room for interpretation. There is only room for application,” it said.

But with the denial of its motion to intervene, JBC insisted that it has been deprived of its right to due process, “a fundamental right enshrined in our Constitution.”

The JBC submitted six separate shortlist where Aquino should choose one from each of the list.

Aquino, however, disregarded one of the five shortlists and appointed two from another shortlist.

The high court, in its ruling last year, said Aquino did not violate the Constitution when he disregarded the clustering of nominees by the JBC.