Aquino names CA Justice Bienvenido Reyes to Supreme Court

President Benigno Aquino III has appointed Court of Appeals Associate Justice Bienvenido Reyes as one of the occupants to the two vacancies in the Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Renato Corona told reporters on Friday that Malacañang has transmitted to the Supreme Court (SC) Reyes' appointment papers for a vacant post. With Reyes' appointment, only one seat remains vacant. Candidates for remaining post are Court of Appeals Justices Jose Reyes, Magdangal de Leon, Estela Bernabe, and Japar Dimaampao. The five CA justices were on the shortlist of nominees submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to the President last June, when two justices – Eduardo Nachura and Conchita Carpio-Morales – left the SC after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70. Because Nachura retired first, Reyes will occupy the seat he vacated. The next appointee will occupy the seat left by Morales, who was appointed Ombudsman last July. The JBC is the constitutional body mandated to screen, vet, and recommend to the President nominees to vacant judicial posts and nominees to the positions of Ombudsman and deputy Ombudsman. Aquino can only pick his appointees from the shortlist submitted by the JBC. Bienvenido Reyes A native of Bulacan province, the 64-year-old Reyes earned his law degree from the San Beda College in 1971. He passed the Bar examinations that same year with a rating of 81.6 percent. Reyes worked in private practice from 1975 and even served as the finance manager of the Best Security Agency Inc. (BSA) from 1987 to 1990. BSA was the security agency set up by President Aquino that time, when his mother was president. Reyes joined the judiciary in 1990, when he served as presiding judge of the Malabon Regional Trial Court. He was later appointed to the Court of Appeals in 2000 by then President Joseph Estrada. Reyes reprimanded Reyes was among the CA justices the SC reprimanded in 2008 for alleged improprieties and bribery over the ownership row between the Government Service Insurance System (GSIS) and Manila Electric Co. (Meralco). The high court found Reyes guilty of “simple misconduct with mitigating circumstance" in connection with the handling of the ownership case with this fellow magistrates. Aside from Reyes, those sanctioned by the high court were CA justices Jose Sabio Jr., Conrado Vasquez, and Myrna Dimaranan-Vidal. CA Justice Vicente Roxas suffered the more severe penalty of dismissal after he was found guilty of multiple violations of the canons of the Code of Judicial Conduct, grave misconduct, dishonesty, undue interest and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of service. Roxas penned the controversial July 23 decision stating that the Securities and Exchange Commission has no jurisdiction to validate the proxy votes counted in favor of the Lopez-bloc of the Meralco. Sabio has earlier admitted that his brother, Camilo, called him up twice to influence him on the position of the GSIS. — LBG, GMA News