Supreme Court Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio has been nominated for the chief justice position once again after being bypassed for the position three times in the past.
Carpio has been automatically nominated to the post being vacated by Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin upon reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70 on Oct. 18 as one of the five next most senior SC justices in line.
Still, under the rules of the Judicial and Bar Council, which is tasked to screen nominees to judicial posts, Carpio’s nomination is subject to acceptance or refusal by the senior magistrates.
Besides Carpio, also nominated for the top judicial post are Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Marvic Leonen and Benjamin Caguioa.
Carpio, who is also retiring from the judiciary on Oct. 26 or just one week after Bersamin’s retirement, has yet to decide whether or not to accept the nomination.
Carpio was bypassed for the chief justice post thrice. He was the most senior magistrate of the high court during a vacancy in the top judicial post and was nominated for chief justice three times, but was not appointed by the appointing authority.
He was bypassed in the appointments to the highest post of then associate justice Renato Corona in 2010, ousted chief justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno in 2012 and Bersamin last year.
Carpio was also nominated for chief justice after the ouster of Sereno last year but declined the nomination after dissenting from the SC ruling on the quo warranto case. The post then went to now-retired chief justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro.
Malacañang had said that President Rodrigo Duterte is honoring the seniority rule in his appointments in the judiciary.
But Carpio has been strong a critic of President Duterte over the administration’s policy on the territorial conflict with China in the West Philippine Sea.
The JBC opened the applications and recommendations to the chief justice post last July 5 and set the deadline on Aug. 20.