JBC submits to Duterte 3 names for chief justice

MANILA, Philippines — Three Supreme Court (SC) associate justices were in the shortlist of candidates for chief justice that was submitted to President Duterte yesterday.

In a transmittal letter addressed to the President, the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) said Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta and Estela Perlas-Bernabe received seven votes each, while Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr. got four.

No information was given on the number of votes received by the fourth contender, Associate Justice Jose Reyes Jr.

Aside from the shortlist, the JBC also provided Duterte copies of the nominees’ resumés.

Among the nominees, Peralta is the most senior associate justice aspiring to replace Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin, who will turn 70 years old on Friday, the mandatory age of retirement for justices.

If Peralta is chosen, he will serve until 2022. He has been serving the SC for more than a decade.

Former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo appointed Peralta to the SC on Jan. 13, 2009.

Bernabe will retire on May 14, 2022. She graduated salutatorian from the Ateneo College of Law and passed the Bar examinations in 1976. She had served in the local courts of Makati before she was appointed to the Court of Appeals (CA) and later the SC.

Reyes, who will retire on May 11, 2020, is a third-generation justice in his family. His father, the late Justice Andres Reyes Sr., was a former CA presiding justice and his grandfather, Alex Reyes Sr., was a CA and SC justice.