BIR chief expresses interest in Chief Justice post

BIR Commissioner Kim Henares. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines – Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Kim Henares said on Tuesday that she was still unsure of accepting the nomination to the post of Chief Justice but admitted that she could not pass up the chance to undertake reforms in the judiciary.

Henares addressed doubts that she would not be up to the job of leading the judiciary by saying she had the advantage of having had to deal with the imperfections of the judicial system.

“I fought for my right against illegal termination and I saw the hardships, the process. You will have to fight the system,” Henares told reporters at the traditional vin d’ honneur in Malacañang for the country’s 114^th Independence Day anniversary.

“You will have to fight the large law firm [that] does not even appear as lawyers but who are doing all the back-channeling. And I mean, what can be a better teacher than experiencing the judicial system yourself?” she added.

“You will have to fight the large law firm [that] does not even appear as lawyers but who are doing all the back-channeling. And I mean, what can be a better teacher than experiencing the judicial system yourself?” she added.

Henares was nominated for the Chief Justice position along with Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza, lawyer and women’s rights advocate Katrina Legarda, former Ateneo de Manila University law school dean Cesar Villanueva, Philippine Daily Inquirer columnist Raul Pangalangan, and former Laguna Assistant Provincial Prosecutor Marianito Sasondocillo.