JBC includes Marawi-born magistrate in shortlist for SC vacancy

The Supreme Court. INQUIRER.net FILE PHOTO

A Court of Appeals (CA) associate justice who hails from Marawi City, the area currently under siege by the Maute group, is one of the shortlisted candidates for associate justice of the Supreme Court (SC).

READ: CA justices dominate JBC shortlist for SC post

Associate Justice Japar Dimaampao, who was born on Dec. 27, 1963 in Marawi City, is among the seven candidates for the position of SC associate justice, which will be vacated by Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes who will retire at the mandatory age of 70 on July 6, 2017.

Dimaampao got five votes from the seven-member Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) that is tasked to screen aspirants for the judiciary and the Office of the Ombudsman.

From a senior prosecutor at the Department of Justice (DOJ), Dimaampao became a regional trial court judge in Mandaluyong City. Then, in April 2004, he was appointed Court of Appeals associate justice, the youngest to be appointed at age 40.

He is also an educator teaching taxation, commercial law and civil law in various schools and a noted lecturer in taxation and commercial law in Bar review classes all over the country.

Aside from Dimaampao, other names in the shortlist are CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr., CA Associate Justices Rosmari D. Carandang and Jose C. Reyes Jr., Justices Apolinario D. Bruselas Jr. and Amy S. Lazaro-Javier as well as law professor Rita Linda Ventura-Jimeno. JPV/rga