Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio on Wednesday vowed to decline all nominations to replace Maria Lourdes Sereno, who was stripped of her position in quo warranto proceedings before the Supreme Court.
Carpio, the most senior magistrate of the 15-member bench, said he will formally decline the nomination once the Judicial and Bar Council starts the process for applications for the post of chief justice.
“On a personal level, because I voted against it, I don’t want to benefit from it so I will decline any nomination. I have to be consistent with my position that the quo warranto was not the correct or proper way to remove a sitting member of the Court,” Carpio said in an interview over ANC’s Headstart.
Carpio was one of the six justices who dissented from the majority decision ousting Sereno as the top magistrate.
While he voted against the removal of Sereno through quo warranto proceedings, Carpio took the position that she should be impeached for committing a culpable violation of the Constitution when she failed to submit all her statement of assets, liabilities and net worth when she applied for the chief justice position in 2012.
Carpio, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in 2001, is retiring from the judiciary in 2019.
After the Court ruled with finality on Sereno’s ouster, President Duterte has 90 days under the Constitution within which to choose her replacement from a list to be submitted by the JBC.
Asked what the JBC will do, once he formally declines a nomination, Carpio said his name will not be included in the list to be submitted to Malacanang.
He said the JBC will meet next week regarding the selection process. As the acting chief justice, Carpio sits as the ex-officio chairman of the JBC.
The other members of the JBC are Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, Senator Richard Gordon, and Oriental Mindoro Rer. Reynaldo Umali, retired SC Associate Justice Jose Catral Mendoza representing the justices and chairperson of its executive committee, lawyer Jose Mejia, representing the academe, lawyer Milagros Fernan-Cayosa, representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and retired judge Toribio Ilao who is representing the private sector.
