Groups urge public interview of Chief Justice candidates

THE Supreme Court Appointment Watch (SCAW) is urging the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to keep its promise to conduct public interviews of candidates for the post of Chief Justice. (Download the JBC announcement of the official list of candidates here.)

Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 on December 7. He was appointed Chief Justice by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo last December.

“It was six years ago when the JBC adopted in its rules that it will conduct public interviews of the candidates. But this did not ever materialize,” said Marlon J. Manuel of the Alternative Law Groups, Inc. (ALG).

ALG is a member of SCAW, which is an initiative of a consortium of civil society organizations that includes the Transparency and Accountability Network, Association of Law Students of the Philippines, Lawyers’ League for Liberty and the Philippine Association of Law Schools.

Public interviews of the three nominees for Chief Justice were cancelled last year, after 12 associate justices wrote to Davide to request for the cancellation of the interview on the following grounds:

• Since the adoption of the 1987 Constitution, the JBC had never interviewed nominees who were incumbent Justices of the Supreme Court and they believed there was “no sound reason” to depart from this process.

• The “ostensible reason for interviewing nominees is to find out how they intend to manage or administer the Judiciary,” but the assumption that the Chief Justice is the Chief Executive of the Judiciary is a “gross misconception.” Neither is the Chief Justice the Chief Executive of the SC.

• The JBC should instead examine the judicial philosophy of the nominees, which are expressed by incumbent justices of the SC in their written decisions, including dissents.

• Under Section 8(1), Article VIII of the 1987 constitution, the JBC is under supervision of the SC, thus there is “something inherently wrong when members of a subordinate body can accept or reject as nominees of a superior body…on a matter involving the choice of presiding officer…when all nominees come from the superior body.”

Had the public interviews pushed through, the JBC would have interviewed incumbent justices for the Chief Justice position for the first time. One of the candidates, Associate Justice Leonardo Quisumbing, was among the signatories.

Voting 6-1, the JBC granted the associates justices’ request not to conduct the interview, although there were “vigorous and serious objections to the substantive grounds relied upon.” Only Sen. Francis Pangilinan voted to proceed, while the ex-officio chairman, then Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. abstained.

The JBC said in a statement that it granted the request solely on the ground that the public interview was moot and academic, as only three candidates had been considered for nomination. The Constitution requires that three names be submitted to Malacañang.

Public interviews were made mandatory by the JBC under section 7 of its rules, which were promulgated on October 2000 during Davide’s term.

Section 1 of JBC Rule 7 states “the interviews for the positions in the Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Sandiganbayan and Ombudsman shall be conducted in public.”

In September 2002, the JBC promulgated Rule No. JBC 10, to further promote public awareness of the JBC and accessibility of its the proceedings. Section 5 of Rule 10 reiterates that interviews of nominees to the judiciary shall be made public.

Six candidates have been nominated to replace Panganiban. Among them is Sen. Miriam Defensor-Santiago, whose nomination by the Young Lawyers Association of the Philippines has been criticized by former Senate president Jovito Salonga. Santiago’s confirmation as a candidate has also sparked fears that Malacañang will railroad her appointment in order to assist its efforts at Charter change.

Since the creation of the Supreme Court in 1901, 21 Chief Justices have been appointed. Traditionally, the most senior associate justices have been appointed Chief Justice.

Arroyo’s appointment of Panaganiban, which bypassed Senior Associate Justice Reynato Puno, is only the fifth exception. (view Puno’s statement here)

As Atty. Fred Pamaos has noted in his personal blog, the other exceptions are the following:

• Chief Justice Victorino Mapa, a former Secretary of Justice, was appointed Chief Justice in 1920 by Governor General Harrison, when the Philippines was still an American colony.

• Chief Justice Jose Yulo was appointed in 1942 during World War II by General Masami Maeda of the Japanese Imperial Forces.

• Chief Justices Felix Makasiar and Ramon Aquino were appointed by former President Ferdinand Marcos in 1985 in lieu of Justice Claudio Teehankee.

Teehankee was appointed Chief Justice by former president Corazon Aquino in 1986.