Tuesday, December 05, 2006 Judicial body picks 4 nominees for chief justice
* Santiago excluded from list; lady senator furious over exclusion
AND it’s down to four.
The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) on Monday trimmed to four the list of nominees as the next chief justice of the Supreme Court (SC), bumping off the names of Associate Justice Antonio Carpio and Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago.
The eight-man council met to finalize its shortlist, three days before Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban retires when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70.
The list, which was submitted to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo during a Cabinet meeting, contained the names of the four most senior SC magistrates, namely, Associate Justices Reynato Puno, Leonardo Quisumbing, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago and Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez.
The decision to submit four names came following an hour-long meeting of the JBC, which discussed a recommendation to declare a failure of the nomination process after the five incumbent justices turned down the JBC's first-ever public interview for CJ nominees last week.
Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez Sr. said Carpio and Santiago were excluded from the shortlist because each of them did not get the necessary five votes from the secret balloting conducted by the panel.
Puno and Quisumbing each got seven votes, while Ynares-Santiago and Gutierrez got five votes.
Gonzalez said it was retired Associate Justice Regino Hermosisima who moved to eliminate the names of nominees who would not get five votes.
"I moved that all six candidates be forwarded but I was outvoted. The rule was that, only those who received not less than five votes will be included," Gonzalez said. He denied that Carpio was not included because of his unfavorable ponencia in the people's initiative case being pushed by the Arroyo administration to amend the 1987 Constitution.
This is the second time that Santiago vied for the position of chief justice. Almost a year ago, she was nominated to succeed then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. but her nomination failed to meet the JBC deadline.
At the Senate, Santiago didn’t mince words when she learned about her exclusion from the list of nominees for chief justice.
Calling it betrayal, Santiago threatened to limit the budget of the SC to its 2005 level and at the same time reduce the JBC’s budget to P100 per annum.
In a privilege speech, Santiago pointed to Chief Justice Panganiban as the mastermind of the plot to disqualify her.
Santiago described the move as “a syndicated move to oust her as a nominee.”
“Mr. Panganiban was the mastermind of this plot to disqualify me. No outsiders shall be appointed chief justice. Ang kakapal ng mukha (Jow thick-faced,” Santiago said.
Santiago, who was the lone nominee who personally went for the public interviews for all candidates of the next Supreme Court Chief Justice, said she is "angry, irate, furious, hitting the roof, ballistic, insulted, humiliated, debased and degraded" by the decision that seemed to say that she is not worthy even for the shortlist nomination.
Santiago also challenged JBC members to take the law school aptitude test, which she stressed, is vital in their profession.
She tagged Justice Panganiban and the JBC as “earthworms in the judiciary.”
Senator Francisco Pangilinan, the Senate's representative to the JBC, said Carpio was voted out of the race with most of the JBC members thinking he was still "too young" to become the 22nd chief justice, while Santiago was considered an "outsider."
Pangilinan said the majority of JBC members felt that if it would push through with the public interview or reopen the nomination, they would be racing against time since Panganiban is retiring in two days.
The senator had been rooting for the declaration of failure of the nomination process after the five sitting magistrates who are vying for the chief justice post boycotted the public screening Wednesday last week.
Of all the six candidates, only Santiago attended the interview but later on told the JBC panel that she decided to forego the invitation so as not to put her "friendly rivals" at an unfair disadvantage.
Pangilinan called on Arroyo to appoint immediately the new chief justice of the SC as he stressed the need for the high court to address critical issues such as the Constituent Assembly (Con-Ass).
“We trust that President Arroyo will choose the new chief justice on the basis of who can serve the Filipino people best as our citizens are the ones who truly hold the power in this country,” Pangilinan said. (ECV/CPB/Sunnex)
