JBC told: Final decision on chief justice row rests with SC

The Palace twitted the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) on Saturday for assailing the Supreme Court’s controversial March 17 ruling allowing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to appoint the next Chief Justice, stressing that the high court has the final say on the matter. Deputy presidential spokeswoman Charito Planas reminded the JBC that only the SC could decide on the issue, and that it has yet to rule on motions questioning the ruling. “Hintayin natin ang decision ng Korte Suprema sa motion for reconsideration, kung itutuloy nila ang decision o babaguhin. Habang hindi pa final and executory yan, (Let us wait for the Supreme Court to rule on the motions for reconsideration, whether it will sustain or reject it. But while the high court’s decision is not yet final and executory, let us wait instead of making so many speculations)," she said on government-run dzRB radio. She also reiterated President Arroyo will “be guided" by whatever decision the high court will make. For now, she said there is nothing to do but to wait for the high court’s decision. The JBC, asserting its independence, had assailed the high court’s March 17 ruling through a comment submitted last April 12. In its comment, the JBC chaired by Chief Justice Reynato Puno told the high court that it should have dismissed the petitions that would have Mrs. Arroyo, whose term ends on June 30, appoint Puno’s successor after the May 10 elections. It said the petitions seeking to allow Arroyo to appoint the chief justice were “patently premature" because it had not yet decided whether it would submit to Mrs. Arroyo a short list of nominees for the successor of Puno, who retires May 17. Also, the JBC told the SC it overstepped constitutional bounds when it declared in its 9-1 ruling written by Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin that Mrs. Arroyo could appoint Puno’s successor even without a short list from the JBC “in an extreme case." Of the eight JBC members, only acting Justice Secretary Alberto Agra did not join the comment signed by Clerk of Court Luisa Villarama as ex-officio JBC secretary. As concurrent Solicitor General, Agra had filed a separate comment asking the high court to state that the President could fill all vacancies in the judiciary, and not just in the high court, during her final three months in office despite the ban on midnight appointments. The ex-officio JBC members are Puno, Agra, and Sen. Francis Escudero and Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor, the chairs of the Senate and House committees on justice, respectively. — LBG, GMANews.TV