De Lima preparing for Tuesday’s JBC interview

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima: Prepared

Manila, Philippines—Justice Secretary Leila De Lima on Monday said she was preparing for the Judicial and Bar Council’s interview on Tuesday despite the condition of his ailing father.

“I just have to try to have a clear mind although that’s next to impossible especially that I’m thinking about my father. I just have to respond to the questions as honestly as possible,” De Lima said in response to reporters’ queries after she attended President Aquino’s deliverance of his third State of the Nation Address (Sona) at the Batasang Pambansa Complex in Quezon City.

De Lima disclosed that her father’s condition was deteriorating, and that he was “hallucinating and in pain.”

She said she felt bad that she had to leave her father but she knew her father understood that she had to attend the Sona as it was an official event.

She said she was nervous but that she was confident that the questions to be thrown to the nominees and applicants would not, in any way, tend to put “any of the applicants on the spot or on the corner or tending to embarrass an applicant.

“There would be tough questions, there would be easy questions, I think there would be mundane questions, for as long as they do not go overboard or they do not go below the belt,” De Lima said.

When asked about her thoughts on people’s opinions that insiders in the Supreme Court purportedly had the advantage over the other nominees, she said, “Well that’s their opinion and I respect that.”

“Really, the insiders, to be honest about it, they have the advantage, they know the ins and outs of the system already. They have been there for years. They know how to discharge their functions so in that sense indeed they have an advantage,” De Lima said.

“And that is why when I accepted the nomination I was offering myself as hopefully an acceptable alternative to the insiders,” De Lima said.

De Lima is one of the nominees for the position of Chief Justice who will be subjected to questioning by the Judicial and Bar Council Tuesday.