Aquino told: Don’t choose a politician as new Chief Justice

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano. PHOTO BY JESS YUSON

A senator on Thursday warned Malacañang  against choosing a politician as the next Chief Justice. Trouble is, a colleague thinks the senator is qualified to succeed Renato Corona.

The search for a new Chief Justice begins on Monday, with the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) sitting to discuss the vacancy on the Supreme Court.

The three most senior justices on the Supreme Court are candidates for Chief Justice of the Philippines, but Malacañang, according to a presidential press officer, is open to considering an outsider.

Senate Minority Leader Alan Peter Cayetano has no problem with that as long as the candidate is not a politician.

“I strongly recommend against choosing politicians,” Cayetano told a news forum at the Senate Thursday.

“The problem with politicians is that we are partisan,” Cayetano said.  “Since everyone knows who are our allies and supporters, there would already be doubt about a new Chief Justice’s integrity at the very beginning,” he said.

Senator Edgardo Angara believes, however, that Cayetano is “more than qualified” as Chief Justice of the Philippines and can replace Corona on the Supreme Court.

Both Cayetano and Angara believe it is legal for President Benigno Aquino III to look beyond the Supreme Court in choosing a new head of the judiciary.

Cayetano is campaigning for a new standard of transparency and accountability, an idea he first pitched in explaining his vote to convict Corona at the conclusion of the impeached Chief Justice’s trial in the Senate on Tuesday.

Academician or lawyer

Cayetano said he would rather that Malacañang choose an academician “or a lawyer with 30 to 40 years of practice, one whom we know loves the law and not its benefits.”

Convicted by the Senate impeachment court on a 20-3 vote, Corona’s removal created a void in the Supreme Court’s leadership. Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has taken over as acting Chief Justice. He will serve until Mr. Aquino can appoint a new Chief Justice.

Under the law, Malacañang appoints justices to serve on the Supreme Court, choosing the justices from a list submitted by the JBC, which vets the nominees. The Chief Justice is the chair of the council.

According to Senator Francis Escudero, however, Carpio cannot lead the JBC in deliberations for the choice of nominees for Chief Justice if he will accept nomination for the position.

“[Carpio] will preside over [JBC deliberations],” said Escudero, the Senate’s representative on the JBC. “If he becomes a nominee, or if he applies, he will have to inhibit, of course,” Escudero said Thursday.

Escudero said the JBC had set a meeting next Monday to approve the publication of the vacancy in the Office of the Chief Justice.

Ninety days

The JBC and Mr. Aquino have 90 days to fill the vacancy.

“It would take one and a half months [to complete the process], or approximately by July 15,” Escudero said. “So the President will have one and a half months to choose from the list.”

But the JBC secretariat expects that a short list of nominees will be on the President’s desk on or before July 15, allowing Mr. Aquino to appoint Corona’s replacement before his annual State of the Nation Address on July 23.

The JBC is composed of four ex-officio officers (Chief Justice, secretary of justice and two members from the Senate and House of Representatives, usually the chairs of their respective committees on justice) and four regular members representing the retired Supreme Court justices, academia, Integrated Bar of the Philippines and the private sector.

SALN submission

At the meeting on Monday, Escudero will propose to the JBC an important reform at the JBC in the aftermath of Corona’s ouster

“I will ask for the adoption of another requirement—for applicants to submit their statements of asset, liabilities and net worth (SALNs),” Escudero said. Even applicants coming from the private sector should submit a SALN, he said.

“All applicants and nominees should execute a waiver of secrecy of bank deposits in favor of the JBC,” he said. “They should submit their maintaining balances (for bank deposits) which should be checked against the SALN.”

“We removed a sitting Chief Justice because of the inaccuracies in his SALNs versus his real bank deposits, so you don’t expect the JBC to nominate to P-Noy (President Aquino) someone whose SALN does not jive with his or her real wealth,” Escudero said.

He said learning a lesson from Corona’s ouster was imperative. “I will not support whoever does not execute a waiver,” Escudero said. “My position is that person should be disqualified. At the very least, I will not vote for that person.”

He added: “Signing a waiver is logical so that the JBC can check your bank deposits. If you don’t want to sign a waiver, then don’t enter the government. We now have to follow a higher standard we applied on Corona.”

Outsiders not banned

Ma. Victoria Gleoresty Guerra, the acting Supreme Court spokesperson, told reporters Thursday  that Carpio had ordered the convening of the JBC to find a replacement for Corona.

While the appointment of senior members of the Supreme Court had been the tradition in the Philippine judicial system, Guerra said the Constitution does not bar Mr. Aquino from naming “outsiders” as Chief Justice.

“There’s no prohibition on the appointment of outsiders as long as (he or she) will meet the qualifications and constitutional requirements (set) for the members of the court,” Guerra said.

In Malacañang, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said Mr.  Aquino was open to the idea of appointing a Chief Justice from outside the Supreme Court.

“I think [Mr. Aquino] has already said in the past that he’s open to an outsider,” Valte said. “He did say it in one of the interviews.”

After its establishment in 1901, the Supreme Court has yet to be headed by somebody who is not an associate justice, according to Guerra.

“But there had been several (associate) justices who were appointed straight from the private sector and were not members of the judiciary (before their appointment),” she said.

Other members of the JBC, besides Carpio and Escudero, are retired Associate Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., the representative of the Retired Justices of the Supreme Court; retired Court of Appeals Associate Justice Aurora Santiago Lagman, from the private sector; lawyer Jose Mejia from academia, and lawyer Maria Milagros Fernan-Cayosa of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines. With reports from Norman Bordadora and Marlon Ramos