Screening for CJ starts with psychological tests

MANILA, Philippines - Twenty-two candidates for chief justice went through mandatory psychological tests at the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) yesterday.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and five other candidates underwent psychological interviews at the JBC office at the Supreme Court centennial building in Manila.

The candidates have until today to submit all their documentary requirements, including statements of assets, liabilities and net worth for public officials and waivers on secrecy of bank deposits.

Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio and five other SC justices – Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion, Roberto Abad and Ma. Lourdes Sereno – are vying for the post of chief justice.

Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza was also included in the list of candidates after he accepted his nomination.

Meanwhile, the JBC granted yesterday a request from Malacañang for the substitution of De Lima as ex-officio member in the selection process for chief justice.

Lawyer Jose Mejia, a regular JBC member representing academe, said they agreed “in principle” in their weekly meeting to allow the executive department to appoint a representative as a substitute for De Lima.

Some JBC members were initially looking at “an undersecretary who is a lawyer” or “someone also from the Department of Justice” as minimum qualification for De Lima’s substitute, he added.

Mejia said they saw nothing wrong with granting the Malacañang request since it does not violate the JBC’s composition as provided under the Constitution.

The JBC wants to respect the representation of the executive department in the process just as they agreed to do with that of the judiciary, he added.

In a letter to the JBC, Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. said the executive department – just like Congress and the judiciary – should not be deprived of “equal representation” in the seven-member body.

“It is upon this constitutional rationale that His Excellency now requests the council’s consideration of his designation of a representative in the council for purposes of the selection of chief justice, vice De Lima,” read the letter.

Ochoa said it is the executive department’s preference to designate De Lima’s substitute, as her “absence would do away with the equal representation of the executive, legislative and the judiciary in the council intended by the Constitution.”

The equal representation of the three branches of government is “essential to the exercise of the (JBC’s) powers and functions in the selection of the chief justice,” he added.

Ochoa said the rationale behind De Lima’s substitute is not borne out of her being justice secretary, “but because she is the alter ego of the President in the council.”

“While it may be true that the President appoints the other members of the council, these appointees are not alter egos of the President and do not represent the executive branch,” he said.

De Lima had inhibited herself from deliberations in the JBC because she had been nominated to the post of chief justice.

Mejia said the JBC members have agreed to follow the Supreme Court order appointing Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta as its representative in the body.

Despite initial objection from JBC member Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., Peralta presided over the deliberations yesterday.

Meanwhile, former solicitor general Frank Chavez reiterated yesterday his call for the SC to stop the JBC from proceeding with the selection of chief justice due to questions on the constitutionality of the participation of Tupas and Sen. Francis Escudero.

The separate votes accorded to the two representatives of Congress violate the Constitution, he added. – With Delon Porcalla