JBC shortlists 4 Ombudsman aspirants

(Updated 12:55 p.m.) The Judicial and Bar Council on Monday picked four candidates whom they will recommend to President Benigno Aquino III to be the next Ombudsman. Topping the JBC's voting are retired Supreme Court justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, incumbent Justice Undersecretary Leah Armamento, Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) Ccommissioner Gerard Mosquera, and former DOJ chief Artemio Tuquero. The four aspirants who were shortlisted received five votes each from the eight-member JBC. A sitting president is mandated by the 1987 Constitution to appoint the Ombudsman only from the shortlist prepared by the JBC. President Aquino has only until August 4 — 90 days after the position was vacated — to name Gutierrez's replacement. The JBC is the constitutional body tasked to vet, screen, and recommend to the President nominees to the vacancies in the judiciary and to nominees to the positions of Ombudsman and deputy Ombudsman. The JBC is composed of the Supreme Court chief justice as ex-officio chair, with the Justice secretary, and House and Senate justice committee heads as ex-officio members. The four other regular members are representatives from the private sector, the academe, the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and a retired SC justice. The other 22 candidates who vied for the Ombudsman post were Alfredo Agawa, retired judge; Philip Aguinaldo, judge; Pelagio Apostol, former deputy Ombudsman for Visayas; Procopio Beltran Jr., lawyer; Emmanuel Bonoan, lawyer; Jose Calida, former Justice undersecretary; Howard Calleja, lawyer for suspended Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) governor Zaldy Ampatuan; Felix Carao, lawyer; Orlando Casimiro, acting Ombudsman; Jose Manuel Diokno, national chair of the Free Legal Assistance Group and De La Salle University College of Law dean; Donato Faylona, lawyer; Ernesto Francisco, advocacy lawyer; Raymundo Francisco, lawyer; Catalino Generillo Jr., lawyer; Portia Hormachuelos, Court of Appeals associate justice; Francis Jardeleza, lawyer; Marlon Manuel, public interest lawyer and head of the Alternative Law Groups; Divinagracia Ongkeko, judge; Renan Ramos, lawyer; Roy Seneres, former Ambassador and National Labor Relations Commission chair; and Florencio Villarin, lawyer. The 26 nominees were interviewed from June 22 to 29. — RSJ, GMA News