The Judicial and Bar Council is now accepting nomination and application for associate justice post at the Supreme Court, which will be vacated by Associate Justice Mariano del Castillo when he reaches his compulsory retirement age of 70 on July 29.
In an advisory, the JBC said interested applicants must submit two complete sets of application or recommendation with conforme, together with all the documentary requirements “not later than 4:30 p.m. of May 14” this year.
“A recommendation or nomination filed in lieu of an application may be given due course only if the recommendee has signified his or her acceptance thereof either in the recommendation itself or in a separate document, and has submitted two complete sets of the documentary requirements,” the JBC said.
The JBC further said that the date of actual receipt of the complete documentary requirements of the applicant or recommendee shall be deemed as the date of filing.
“The qualification of applicants shall be reckoned from the said deadline,” it added.
Del Castillo is among the senior justices in the High Court, appointed in 2009 by then President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
In 2010, he penned the controversial decision on a case involving Filipinas sexually abused by Japanese soldiers during World War II where the petitioners said it contain “plagiarized” portions taken out of context to support the contention dismissing their plea.
Del Castillo served as the chairman of the 2018 Bar examinations.
Aside from Del Castillo, the JBC also opened the application for the post of chairperson of the Legal Education Board following the end of the term of Emerson Aquende last Jan. 13 and that of LEB regular member Zenaida Elepaiio, whose term also ended last Jan. 13.
She was representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in the LEB.