Carpio gets nominated as CJ for 4th time

Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio EDWIN BACASMAS / INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — He is set to retire in October and had been bypassed for the position thrice, but Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has again been nominated for Chief Justice.

Carpio was automatically nominated to the post to be vacated by Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Oct. 18.

Carpio, who retires on Oct. 26, has yet to decide whether or not he would vie for the post.

The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), which is tasked to screen nominees to judicial posts, opened the applications and recommendations to the chief justice post on July 5 and set the deadline on Aug. 20.

Apart from Carpio, Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Marvic Leonen and Benjamin Caguioa were also nominated for the post.

It can be recalled that Carpio was bypassed for the chief justice position thrice—in the appointments of the late Chief Justice Renato Corona in 2010, ousted Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno in 2012, and Bersamin last year.

Meanwhile, Supreme Court justices are pushing for reforms in the country’s legal education system.

As the legal education summit (LES) kicked off, the SC justices, led by Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin, have expressed support for the proposed updating of the basic law curriculum to adopt to best global practices.

The LES, a two-day event with the theme “Shifting Paradigm: Remodelling Legal Education in the Philippines,” was organized to determine the problems in legal education and formulate possible solutions to address them.

“Of late, the quality of the legal training has come under much criticism following the dismal performance in recent years of our law graduates in the bar examinations,” Bersamin said.