The Judicial and Bar Council may relax its rules on the nominations for the post of chief justice so it could still consider Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio as a nominee to the post even if he declines the nomination, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra said Monday.
Guevarra, an ex-officio member of the JBC, said Carpio may still be considered a candidate for the post vacated by ousted Chief Jutice Maria Lourdes Sereno despite his pronouncement that he would decline all his nominations for the most coveted post in the judiciary.
Guevarra said while the JBC rules require the nominees to accept their nomination, this rule could be waived in the case of Carpio as sought by retired Chief Justice Hilario Davide Jr. in his letter to the council.
“The JBC rules require the consent of the automatic nominee. But since there is a request to dispense with such consent, the JBC may have to consider it,” Guevarra said.
He said the JBC, which is tasked to vet the nominees to judicial posts. will discuss the matter in their next meeting that will be presided by Carpio himself as acting chief justice and ex-officio chairman of the council.
In his recent letter to the JBC, Davide backed the automatic nomination of Carpio for the post of chief justice and asked the council to still consider the most senior justice in the current composition of the high court even if he formally declines the nomination.
“He had earlier been bypassed twice. Delicadeza should no longer be invoked because the decision in the quo warranto case is final. It has become the law of the case,” Davide said.
“The vacancy is real and lawful. He was not responsible for its occurrence. Personal consideration must now yield to the demands of public interest and of the good of the service. He should not deprive the President to have the opportunity for a wider field of choice for the best for the Supreme Court in particular and the Judiciary and the people in general.”
Carpio and the four other most senior magistrates of the high court”•Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin”•have been automatically nominated for the post of chief justice.
De Castro, Peralta and Bersamin are expected to accept their automatic nomination to comply with the requirement of having at least three nominees for the post. Velasco, on the other hand, is retiring from the judiciary next month.
Lawyer Jose Mejia, a regular member of the JBC representing the academe, said no applications or nominations had been submitted to them since the vacancy was opened on June 25.
He also said that none of the five most senior justices had responded to their automatic nominations.
Apart from Carpio, Guevarra, and Mejia, the other members of the JBC are Senate justice committee chairman Richard Gordon, retired high court justice Jose Catral-Mendoza, retired judge Toribio Ilao and lawyer Milagros Fernan-Cayosa.