The Judicial and Bar Council has opened the nomination for the position in the Office of the Ombudsman to be vacated in June by Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera.
Applicants have until April 17 to submit their applications or nominations with acceptance as well as documentary requirements to the JBC’s office at the Centennial Building of the Supreme Court in Manila.
“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 documentary requirements,” says the announcement signed by JBC ex-officio secretary and Supreme Court clerk of court Edgar Aricheta.
Mosquera, who was appointed by former president Benigno Aquino III in 2012, will vacate his post on June 1 after completing his seven-year term.
His replacement will be the second appointment for President Duterte in the anti-graft office after Supreme Court Associate Justice Samuel Martires who was appointed as Ombudsman in July last year.
The seven-man council concurrently led by Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin also set the public interview of the nominees for four vacancies in the Court of Appeals and two vacancies in the Court of Tax Appeals.
The council set the interviews for all 39 applicants in all CA and CTA posts on March 12, 13, 14, 15, 18, 19 and 20.
The JBC will no longer interview 22 other nominees for the six different posts due to the previous interviews that are still valid.
The council also invited objections from the public to any nomination of any of the 61 candidates.
“The public may submit a sworn complaint, report or opposition against any of the aforesaid candidates in 10 legible copies by personal delivery or mail to the JBC… not later than 4:30 p.m. of 13 March 2019,” the council said.
The vacancies in the appellate court stemmed from the promotion of Associate Justice Jose Reyes Jr. to the high court in August last year and the retirements of Associate Justices Magdangal De Leon, Renato Francisco and Romulo Borja in August and September last year.
The two CTA vacancies, on the other hand, stemmed from the retirements of Associate Justices Lovell Bautista and Caesar Casanova in August and September last year.
The JBC is led by Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin with Senator Richard Gordon and Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra as ex-officio members.
The current regular members of the council are retired high court Justice Jose Mendoza, lawyer Milagros Fernan-Cayosa from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and retired Judge Toribio Ilao from the private sector. The President has yet to appoint the seventh member representing the academe.
Duterte has also to fill the two vacancies in the high court left by the promotion of Bersamin as chief justice in November last year and the retirement of Associate Justice Noel Tijam on Jan. 5. The JBC had earlier submitted the short lists for both positions to the Palace.