Monday, December 04, 2006
Judicial body picks 4 nominees for chief justice (10:23 p.m.)
MANILA -- 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. (ECV/CPB/Sunnex) |
