Ex-Ombudsman declines nomination for SC top post

Former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines– Former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo said on Friday that he declined his nomination for the Chief Justice post.

“I declined it. I think that there are already enough qualified nominees,” Marcelo told INQUIRER.net in a text message.

Marcelo was nominated by retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Florentino Feliciano.

A former President of the Philippine Bar Association (PBA), Marcelo in 2010 called on then Supreme Court Associate Justice Renato Corona to withdraw from the Chief Justice race.

The PBA is the oldest voluntary national organization of Filipino lawyers. It is one of the groups which  questioned the authority of then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to appoint the next chief justice despite a constitutional prohibition of making appointments a few months before the elections.

Marcelo nominated former Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio for the Chief Justice post in 2010 but Villa-Ignacio declined, saying he would only accept the nomination if the next President will make the appointment.

Currently, there are 68 nominees and two applicants to the Chief Justice post; 14 have already accepted the nomination while 22 have declined the nomination.

Aside from Marcelo, the others who turned down their nominations were Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez, constitutionalist Fr. Joaquin Bernas, Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Franklin Drilon,  Supreme Court Associate Justices Mariano Del Castillo, Bienvenido Reyes and Estela Perlas Bernabe, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Francisco Villaruz, Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Andres Reyes, Cebu-based Court of Appeals Associate Justice Gabriel Ingles, Appeals Court Justice Magdangal De Leon, Executive Secretary Pacquito Ochoa, Former Defense Secretary Gilberto Teodoro Jr., former Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla, Dean Rodolfo Robles, prosecutor Marianito Sasondoncillo, Integrated Bar of the Philippines President Roan Libarios and former Senator Rene Saguisag. There are three other nominees–two Justices and a lower court judge–who declined and requested the JBC to exclude their names from the list.