FOURTEEN aspirants are vying for one of two vacancies in the Supreme Court this December, and it’s the post to be vacated by Associate Justice Jose Perez who will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Dec. 14.
Associate Justice Arturo Brion will also reach his mandatory retirement age of 70 on Dec. 29.
The Judicial and Bar Council said Wednesday it had received 14 applicants and nominees for Perez’s post, and that most of them were magistrates of the Court of Appeals and the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court.
The candidates include CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr. and Associate Justices Jose Reyes Jr., Apolinario Bruselas Jr., Rosmari Carandang, Stephen Cruz, Japar Dimaampao and Noel Tijam, and Sandiganbayan Associate Justices Samuel Martires and Alex Quiros.
Also seeking the post are regional trial court Judges Rowena Apao-Adlawan and Reynaldo Daway, Chief Public Attorney Persida Rueda-Acosta, chief state counsel Ricardo Paras, and Centro Escolar University law school vice dean Rita Linda Ventura-Jimeno.
Under the rules, names of the applicants and nominees will be published to invite public support or objections. They will then undergo psychological tests and public interviews before the JBC comes up with a shortlist to be submitted to the President.
Perez holds the distinction of being the high court’s first ‘‘homegrown’’ justice, having spent all the years of his professional life in the Supreme Court, where he started as a legal assistant in the Office of the Reporter in 1971 before being picked as one of its associate justices on Dec. 26, 2009.
Perez graduated in the top 10 of his class in both his political science and law studies at the University of the Philippines. His academic achievements gained him entry to the Phi Kappa Phi and Phi Gamma Mu Honor Societies as well as the Order of the Purple Feather, the UP Law Honor Society.