Govt seeks SC help in chief justice issue

The government has asked the Supreme Court to compel the Judicial and Bar Council to submit its shortlist of nominees for the chief justice position to President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. In a 41-page comment, Acting Solicitor General Alberto Agra asked the SC to declare that President Arroyo has the absolute power to appoint the next chief justice upon the retirement of Chief Justice Reynato Puno on May 17 despite the election ban on appointments. “The nature of respondent JBC’s function is executive. The present Constitution has not conferred legislative nor judicial powers on it. Accordingly, it is not vested with power to resolve issues. It has no discretion to withhold the list from the President. Nor does it have jurisdiction to determine whether the incumbent President can appoint the next Chief Justice in light of the peculiar circumstances of this case. Such jurisdiction lies in this Honorable Court," Agra said. The JBC is an eight-man council that screens nominees for vacant judicial posts. The issue on the appointment of Puno’s successor has triggered legal and political debate as it is the first time the retirement of the chief justice falls on a period covered by election ban on appointments that is mandated under the 1987 Constitution. Agra said the election ban on midnight appointments under Section 15, Article VII of the Constitution does not cover the chief justice post based on “mathematics" and “deliberation of framers of the Charter." He said the appointment ban, which lasts from 109 to 115 days in regular elections, is longer than the 90-day period within which a Supreme Court justice must be appointed under Section 4, Article VII. “If the midnight appointments ban were to be applied to appointments in the Supreme Court, at least 19 occasions may be conceived where the President will never be able to comply with her constitutional duty of filling up a vacancy in the Supreme Court. Surely, the framers of the 1987 Constitution, in deciding these dates and periods, could not have meant or intended to allow such an absurd situation to happen," he said. Among those whose nominations have been accepted by the JBC were Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Renato Corona, Conchita Carpio-Morales, Arturo Brion, Teresita Leonardo-de Castro and Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval. - KBK, GMANews.TV