Arroyo ready for lawsuits in chief justice issue

Despite the supposed constitutional ban on "midnight appointments" by an outgoing chief executive, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo will appoint the next chief justice even if it costs her lawsuits and a further drop in her popularity ratings, a Malacañang official said on Sunday. Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said President Arroyo will make the appointment even without the shortlist from the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), the body that screens nominees for vacant judicial posts. "The time is not yet ripe because the JBC list has not yet reached the President. Once that the deadline comes and there is no list from the JBC yet, the President will make a decision," he said. The deadline he was referring to was May 17, when Chief Justice Reynato Puno reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. Under the Constitution, an incumbent president is prohibited from making appointments 60 days before elections. Applied this year, the appointment ban will start on March 11 and will stay in effect until President Arroyo's term ends on June 30. National interest Olivar said they prefer that the JBC submits its list of nominees so that President Arroyo could choose the new chief justice. He, however, said that if Puno retires and no list is given, the President can make an appointment based on national interest. "As usual she will consider the good of the majority. If she gets lawsuits and her survey ratings plunge further, her primary consideration is her responsibility and the national interest," he said. President Arroyo's latest net satisfaction rating is –38 points, her second lowest since the –50 that she got in October 2004. Olivar also shrugged off the resolution by the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) stating that President Arroyo's successor should appoint the next head of the Supreme Court. He said the IBP position will be treated as an “additional input" to the many legal advice that the President has been getting. The IBP is the official organization of all Philippine lawyers whose names appear in the Roll of Attorneys of the Supreme Court. Olivar said the Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile, former Justice Secretary Artemio Toquero, and the Philippine Constitution Association (Philconsa) have stated that President Arroyo can act on the vacancy of the chief justice position even without a list of nominees from the JBC. 5 nominees The JBC had considered five nominees for Puno’s replacement: Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Renato Corona, Eduardo Nachura, and Presbitero Velasco Jr. Nachura and Velasco had declined to be included in the list, saying only the three most senior justices – Carpio, Corona, and Morales – should be nominated. Both Carpio and Morales, however, said they were both willing to be appointed as Puno’s successor, but on the condition that the next President would do the appointment. Talks are rife that President Arroyo would pick Corona, her perceived ally, instead of Carpio, the most senior associate justice. Carpio was one of the founding partners of the prominent Carpio Cruz Villaraza, also known as “The Firm," which had close ties with President Arroyo. Other co-founders include former Defense secretary Avelino Cruz and Arthur Villaraza. “The Firm" supposedly had a falling out with President Arroyo after the “Hello, Garci" controversy broke out in 2005. Cruz and “The Firm" member, former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, resigned from the Arroyo administration in 2005 and 2006, respectively. Pro-Arroyo? A check on previous Supreme Court rulings on controversial cases involving the Arroyo administration would show that Corona voted in favor of the administration while Carpio voted against it. In October 2008, Carpio was among the justices who said the memorandum of agreement on ancestral domain (MOA-AD) between the government and the Moro Islamic Liberation Front should be declared unconstitutional. Corona, on the other hand, voted in favor of the government, which argued that the matter be considered “moot and academic" because the deal creating a Bangsamoro Juridical Entity was never signed. In September 2008, the Supreme Court allowed former Socioeconomic planning secretary Romulo Neri to invoke “executive privilege" in the Senate investigation on the botched $329-million national broadband deal the government entered with China’s Zhong Xing Telecommunications Equipment Corp. (NBN-ZTE) deal. Neri refused to answer the Senate Blue Ribbon Committee’s questions on whether he and President Arroyo discussed the deal, which made headlines after businessmen Jose de Venecia III and Rodolfo “Jun" Lozada claimed that First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo and former Elections chair Benjamin Abalos earned from the allegedly anomalous transaction. Carpio said Neri could not invoke executive privilege, while Corona voted in favor of Neri. - with Sophia Dedace/KBK, GMANews.TV