Carpio hints at accepting Chief Justice nomination

MANILA (Updated) -- Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio on Friday said he will never back down in leading the judiciary for the years to come.

Speaking to reporters after a gathering of Central Luzon-based lawyers in Pampanga, Carpio said he "will not turn down any challenge to lead the judiciary if given the opportunity."

Carpio, who last spoke to the press during the 111th anniversary of the Supreme Court last June 11, said he never prayed to become the next Chief Justice.

"No. For me, I respect the prerogative of the President (Benigno Aquino III), so I am not demanding or asking anything. It's his right to choose from the list that is submitted and that is my policy ever since, provided of course that the President has the power," said Carpio.

His latest pronouncement indicated that he is bent on accepting the automatic nomination being the most senior magistrate in terms of appointment.

But records from the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), the screening body which he incidentally chairs, showed Carpio has yet to inform his desire to join the selection process.

"He has not yet filed a letter of acceptance as per his office," acting Supreme Court spokesperson Gleoresty Guerra told Sun.Star in a text message.

Carpio recently inhibited himself in the deliberations of the JBC, which has until Monday to accept nominations for the position vacated by Renato Corona, who was ousted by the Senate on May 29 for betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution for failure to declare some multi-million peso deposits in his asset statement.

Aside from Carpio, other senior justices automatically nominated were Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion and Diosdado Peralta. Brion has already accepted his nomination, along with Justice Roberto Abad and 11 others.

Meantime, Carpio defended the JBC's move requiring applicants to the post to open their bank deposits for scrutiny.

"This is not an additional qualification for the office, but merely a tool to determine the integrity of the applicant similar to the requirement to submit police, Ombudsman and court clearances," he said in a speech before the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) Central Luzon regional convention in Clark, Pampanga.

Sharing his personal thoughts, Carpio said the judiciary's number one problem is clogged dockets, which are a result of delays in trial and deciding cases.

Trials should not normally take over two years to finish, the 1987 Constitution states, but Supreme Court records revealed that 21 percent of cases take two to five years to end and 13 percent were only resolved after five years.

To solve this, Carpio proposed the adoption of a computerized case management system from first level courts to the Supreme Court.

The CMS, he said, will allow the Chief Justice, presiding justices, the court administrator and the deputy court administrators to monitor real time the caseload, aging, and the rate of disposition of cases of any judge or justice.

He also proposed a simplified trial procedure for all trial courts as he called the present system as "obsolete, cumbersome, and time-consuming," which contributed for the clogged dockets. Lack of prosecutors and judges in rural areas were also cited.

Above all these, Carpio said cases can only be resolved early if judges and justices have integrity, independence and competence.

"Decisions of a judge or justice are the best evidence of the competence, integrity and independence of the judge or justice. A decision can reveal whether the judge or justice knows his law, whether a judge or justice has favored a litigant, and whether judge or justice has competence, integrity and independence," he said. (Virgil Lopez/Sunnex)