Metro Manila (CNN Philippines) — President Rodrigo Duterte will soon get a chance to name his first two among several appointees to the Supreme Court.
Associate Justice Jose Perez will retire on December 14, while Asssociate Justice Arturo Brion will step down on December 29. They will both reach the mandatory retirement age of 70.
Chief Public Attorney Persida Acosta first faced the selection committee of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC). The JBC screens all nominees to the high court.
JBC members grilled Acosta on her independence.
“Nilalabanan ko rin ang gobyerno. Madalas. Laglag bala, gobyerno kalaban ko dyan,” Acosta said. [I also fight the government. Often. I fought the government on bullet-planting scheme.]
On recent rulings of the high court, she found herself in trouble, particularly on the decision allowing the burial of former President Ferdinand Marcos at the Libingan ng mga Bayani.
Retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez asked Acosta: “If you were a member of the Supreme Court would you have concurred or dissented in its decision penned by Justice Peralta?”
“I will concur your honor because dura lex. The law is very clear,” Acosta said.
To which Gutierrez replied: “There is no law pañera. What regulation or law did the court base its decision? There was no law.”
Advocacy group Supreme Court Appointments Watch underscores the importance of choosing independent magistrates.
“If the independence of the justices or if the justices who will be appointed will not be independent of the political branches of government then the 10 votes as we know can be a majority,” Marlon Manuel, the group’s representative, said.
After the screening, the Judicial and Bar Council will submit to the president a shortlist, from which he will choose the new justices.
Others who faced the screening were professor Rita Jimeno, Davao Judge Rowena Apao Adlawan, Court of Appeals Justices Japar Dimaampao and Noel Tijam, Sandiganbayan Justice Samuel Martires, and Chief State Counsel Ricardo Paras.
On Thursday, Court of Appeals Justices Romulo Borja and Amy C. Lazaro-Javier, and law professor Joseph P. San Pedro will also face the JBC.
President Duterte to have at least 10 appointees in SC
By the end of his term in 2022, Duterte would have appointed 10 magistrates – or up to 12, should he ignore the ban on so-called “midnight appointments.”
Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Estela Perlas-Bernabe will retire on March and May 2022, before the next presidential elections.
Should that happen, only three appointees of the Aquino administration will remain: Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Associate Justices Marvic Leonen and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa.
Sereno, the second youngest to head the judiciary, will be one of the longest serving chief justices. She will step down in 2030.
