Arroyo to name new chief justice in 7 days

A new chief justice may be appointed within the week, a Malacañang official said on Sunday. Deputy presidential spokesman Gary Olivar said President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo would make the appointment “as soon as she can" after she receives the list of nominees from the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) possibly on Monday after the council's special meeting. “We expect her to act quickly because we understand the need to have a new chief justice before the elections start," he said. The Philippines will have its first ever nationwide automated elections on May 10, seven days before Chief Justice Reynato Puno retires upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. The JBC, an eight-man body that screens nominees for vacant judicial posts, will meet Monday at the Hyatt Hotel in Manila to finalize its shortlist of nominees for the justice position. Olivar said President Arroyo may have already picked her choice for Puno's replacement since the nominees are not secret. Those vying for the position are SC Associate Justices Renato Corona, Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, and Arturo Brion; and Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Edilberto Sandoval. Last-ditch effort But as this developed, a prominent group of lawyers made a last-ditch effort to stop the JBC from voting and submitting to Malacañang the shortlist of nominees. The Philippine Bar Association (PBA) filed a six-page letter dated April 30 asking the JBC to defer Monday’s meeting to give way to the second motion for reconsideration the PBA intends to file with the Supreme Court. The motion would be in connection with the high court’s March 17 ruling allowing President Arroyo to appoint the next chief justice despite the constitutional ban on appointments during the election period. The high court likewise ordered the JBC to proceed with the nomination process and to prepare the shortlist of nominees for the position. “Petitioner PBA intends to file said second motion for reconsideration in order to fully exhaust all arguments bearing upon the instant case, and to be able to give the Highest Court the opportunity to consider the various arguments through fresh perspectives, to ultimately arrive at a resolution that is most beneficial to the interest of the Filipino people and the democratic institutions that they and their forebears have painstakingly erected," part of PBA’s letter to JBC read. Unprecedented The PBA, headed by former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, said that while it is aware that a second motion for reconsideration is a prohibited pleading, the case presents an issue unprecedented in its public interest implications and involves a constitutional question. It noted that the issues involved the independence and credibility of the SC in light of the intended appointment to be exercised by the incumbent president, as well as giving life to the systems of checks and balances in the Constitutions and limitations with respect to this particular presidential right. “For this reasons alone, the instant case would justify another look, filled with even greater circumspection… if only to ensure that the interpretations embodied therein are in consonance with our democratic fundamentals and not vulnerable to being abused by the unscrupulous few," PBA’s letter read. — KBK, GMANews.TV