Con-com eyes new body with investigative, disciplinary powers
Former Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura. INQUIRER.net / CATHY MIRANDA
The Consultative Committee (Con-com) is eyeing to create a new and independent body that would screen candidates to judicial posts as well as investigate members of the judiciary.
In a bid to overhaul the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), former Supreme Court (SC) Associate Justice Antonio Eduardo Nachura said the 22-member panel proposed the creation of the Judicial Appointments and Disciplinary Council (JADC).
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In addition to JBC’s current powers to vet candidates to judicial posts, the JADC would also have the power to investigate and discipline members of the judiciary, Nachura said in a press briefing at the Philippine International Convention Center.
It would also have the power to vet the promotion and transfer of justices and judges, the former SC magistrate added.
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Article continues after this advertisementUnlike the seven-member JBC, Nachura said the JADC would be composed of 14 members – 10 ex-officio members and four regular members.
The ex-officio members of JADC would include the following:
- Chief Justice of the Federal Supreme Court
- Presiding Justice of the Federal Constitutional Court
- Presiding Justice of the Federal Administrative Court
- Representative from the Senate
- Representative from the House of Representatives
- Ombudsman
- Chairman of the Commission on Audit (COA)
- Chairman of the Civil Service Commission (CSC)
- Secretary of Justice
- Court Administrator of the Federal Supreme Court
The regular members of the proposed JADC would be the following:
- Representative from and designated by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines
- A law professor designated by the Philippine Association of Law Schools
- A representative from and designated by the Association of Generals and Flag Officers
- A retired member of the Federal Supreme Court to be designated by the Association of the Retired Justices of the Federal Supreme Court
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Nachura, chairman of the Con-com subcommittee on the structure of the federal government, believed that the addition of the Ombudsman and the chairmen of the COA and CSC would fill the JADC’s membership with “competence and integrity.”
“These are supposed to be men and women of proven competence and integrity,” he noted.
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Meanwhile, Con-com spokesman Ding Generoso said the new name of the body – JADC – was intended “to reflect its broader powers, functions and coverage of vetting (judicial appointees).”
READ: Con-com eyeing JBC revamp
The JADC, Generoso pointed out, would also be independent and no longer under the supervision of the SC or the proposed federal High Courts.
Nachura said these proposals have been included in the article on the judiciary, which the Con-com en banc is set to vote upon.
The Con-com was created by President Rodrigo Duterte to review the prevailing 1987 Constitution and draw a new one under a federal form of government. /kga
