Nominee for chief justice backs out, another sets condition

A nominee for the position of chief justice has backed out from the race while another signified her intention to join on the condition that President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo will not make the appointment. If the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) allows the withdrawal of Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., the number of candidates from the SC would be reduced to four: Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, and Associate Justices Renato Corona, Antonio Eduardo Nachura, and Conchita Carpio-Morales, who said her nomination must be submitted to the next president. In a letter to the JBC, the body that screens nominees to vacant judicial posts, Carpio-Morales said her interest is anchored on her belief that the shortlist of nominees should be submitted to whoever will be elected president in the May 10 elections. “Upon the understanding that the nomination is to be submitted to the next President of the Philippines in light of the constitutional ban on the incumbent President to appoint a chief justice after [Chief Justice Reynato] Puno retires on May 17, 2010, (Article VII, Section 15, 1987 Constitution), I hereby manifest my interest to be considered for nomination to the position," Carpio-Morales said in a letter-reply to JBC secretary Ma. Luisa Villarama. Puno, the only non-Arroyo appointee in the 15-member SC, is set to retire on May 17 upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Whether or not President Arroyo should name Puno’s successor despite the constitutional ban on presidential appointments two months before a national election has been the subject of debates. Seniority matters Velasco, meanwhile, has written a letter to Puno, ex-officio chairman of the JBC, asking that his name be stricken out from the shortlist of nominees, which he said should just be limited to the three most senior magistrates of the SC, meaning Carpio, Corona and Morales. Velasco had been appointed to the SC on March 31, 2006, following a five-year stint as court administrator. “I would like to inform the Council that if ever I will be considered for the position of Chief Justice, I will formally decline the nomination because I believe that the nomination should be limited to the top three senior associate justices," Velasco said in a letter dated January 18, 2010. The JBC has asked the five nominees to manifest in writing, in accordance to Section 5 and 8, Rule I of the JBC rules, whether they are interested to be considered for nomination as Puno’s replacement. The JBC has yet to receive Carpio, Corona and Nachura’s reaction to their possible nomination for the chief justice post. The JBC will accept nominations until February 4. Traditionally, only nominees from SC have been chosen as chief justice, although the eight-man council once conducted a public interview on Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago who then aspired to become chief justice after then Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban’s retirement. She lost to Puno. - KBK, GMANews.TV