Bersamin accepts nomination to chief justice post

MANILA, Philippines — Associate Justice Lucas Bersamin on Wednesday has accepted the nomination to become the next chief justice.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra confirmed this in a text message to Philstar.com.

Guevarra is a member of the Judicial and Bar Council, the panel that screens applications to posts in the Judiciary.

As one of the five most senior justices at the high court, Bersamin has an automatic nomination to the post. Under JBC rules, a letter of acceptance of the nomination must be filed for the canddiate to be considered for the post.

He is also the first among the justices with an automatic nomination to have accepted it.

“Some others are expected to file today,” the Justice chief also said.

On Tuesday, Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio formally declined his automatic nomination to the chief justice post.

Apart from the nomination by tradition, Carpio had also received recommendations from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and from former Chief Justice Hilario Davide.

The recommendations were filed despite Carpio’s earlier pronouncement that he has to be consistent with his position on the government’s quo warranto ruling that ousted Maria Lourdes Sereno as chief justice.

“On a personal level, because I have voted against it, I don’t want to benefit from it, so I will decline any nomination,” Carpio added.

Bersamin voted to grant Solicitor General Jose Calida’s legal challenge to Sereno’s appointment as chief justice.

Sereno, alleging bias,asked Bersamin and five other justices to inhibit from ruling on the quo warranto case.

Sereno said that the justices who appeared as resource persons at the House of Representatives impeachment proceedings against her should take their hands off the quo warranto case.

Speaker Gloria Mcapagal-Arroyo, while president, appointed Bersamin to the high court on April 3, 2009.

He is due to retire on October 18, 2019.

He was appointed a trial court judge in Quezon City in 1986, and then rose through the ranks to become a Court of Appeals justice in 2003.