The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) said on Tuesday it would screen 13 candidates for an upcoming vacancy in the Supreme Court in August.
The candidates include 10 associate justices of the Court of Appeals, an associate justice of the Sandiganbayan, the Supreme Court court administrator and a deputy Ombudsman, it said.
One of them will eventually replace Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Mendoza who will retire on August 13.
Ten of the candidates have already been interviewed by the JBC.
These are Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr.; Court of Appeals Associate Justices Ramon Bato Jr., Apolinario Bruselas Jr., Rosmari Carandang, Stephen Cruz, Japar Dimaampao, Ramon Paul Hernando, Amy Lazaro-Javier and Jose Reyes Jr.; and Supreme Court Court Administrator Midas Marquez.
The JBC said it would conduct a public interview of three candidates on July 4, namely: Court of Appeals Associate Justice Samuel Gaerlan; Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Alexander Gesmundo; and Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera.
The Constitution requires the President to choose his appointees to the judiciary from among nominees submitted by the seven-member JBC, which is chaired by Chief Justice Lourdes Sereno.
The JBC has already submitted to President Duterte its list of nominees for the replacement of Supreme Court Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes, who is to retire on July 6.
The nominees include five Court of Appeals magistrates, namely Reyes, Carandang, Bruselas, Dimaampao and Javier, who are all automatically included among those to be vetted for the next Supreme Court vacancy.
The JBC announced it would also hold public interviews on July 5 and 6 for candidates to replace retired Court of Appeals Associate Justice Noel Tijam and former Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Samuel Martires who was appointed to the high court last March.
The JBC is scheduled to interview 18 out of the 57 candidates.