HALL OF JUSTICE. Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and Justice Teresita Leonardo-De Castro of the Supreme Court lead the unveiling of the marker at the newly-inaugurated Jose Abad Santos Hall of Justice in Angeles City.
With them are Mayor Edgardo Pamintuan and Governor Lilia “Baby” Pineda. Photo courtesy of Angeles CIO
ANGELES CITY– Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio expressed confidence here yesterday that the Supreme Court would be able to resolve the petition of former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez within the 90-day constitutional time frame for filling up the vacated post of chief justice.
“We will comply with that period,” Carpio said in an interview here after he led in the inauguration of the P300-million Hall of Justice at the city hall compound here.
Carpio declined to comment on reports that he would likely be the next Chief Justice, saying only that “I will not turn down the opportunity to serve in the judiciary.”
The Constitution mandates the filling up of the Chief Justice post within 90 days after it was vacated.
That means the President has to name a new Chief Justice by Aug. 27, as former Chief Justice Renato Corona left this post May 27.
However, Carpio and Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Roberto Abad and Ma. Lourdes Sereno inhibited themselves from Chavez’s case as they had accepted their nomination to the Chief Justice post.
This, as Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) member Ma. Milagros Fernan-Cayosa said that Justice Sec. Leila de Lima would not be disqualified as a nominee despite a disbarment case against her for as long as the case is resolved before the President could announce his choice for the Chief Justice post.
The disbarment case against De Lima was filed at the Supreme Court by lawyer Augusto Sundiam after De Lima allegedly called the then chief justice Renato Corona “a lawless tyrant” on national television.
The case was eventually given to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, which was tasked to investigate the matter and come up with recommendations.
“She can still be in the long list of nominees despite the disbarment case,” said Cayosa.
Cayosa also said that the JBC is set to come out today with its long list of recommendees to the Chief Justice post. She noted, however, that the JBC has “self-imposed” July 30 at its deadline for the final three nominees from whom the President could name the chief justice.
“For as long as there is no injunction for us to stop in the selection process, we will do our work,” she said.
There are now over 70 nominees to the post.
The Supreme Court gave the JBC up to July 11 to reply to Chavez’s petition which urged the court to issue a temporary restraining order to prohibit the council from conducting the selection process for the replacement of ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona.
The court also ordered Iloilo Representative NielTupas Jr., Senator Francis Escudero and the Office of the Solicitor General to submit their own comments.
In his petition, Chavez said the JBC’s practice of allowing a senator and a congressman to sit in the council at the same time was “patently unconstitutional” and an “antipodean departure” from the constitutional provision on its composition.
This, even as Carpio, in his speech during the inauguration of the World Bank-funded Hall of Justice here, again reiterated his appeal for the executive and legislative branches of government to include funds in the General Appropriations Act for the construction of more Halls of Justice nationwide.
“We hope to convince the executive and legislative branches to adequately fund under the annual General Appropriations Act the periodic construction of new courthouses and the renovation of existing ones, throughout the country,” he said.
He said that “it is very ironic and unfortunate that the capital city of the Republic still does not have its own Hall of Justice for its 104 courts.
Aside from being tenants of Manila City Hall, our judges and court personnel in Manila have to make do with cramped and dilapidated workspace.”
