Who are the candidates short-listed for SC associate justice? - Rappler
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HIGHEST COURT. File photo of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.
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MANILA, Philippines β A total of 11 candidates have been short-listed by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for the position of Supreme Court (SC) associate justice vice Associate Justice Amy Lazaro Javier, who will retire on November 16.
Under the 1987 Constitution, the JBC is mandated to screen applicants for the judiciary and the Office of the Ombudsman. After the screening, the JBC will conduct public interviews of the qualified candidates. A deliberation will follow, then the council will submit a short list to the president who will then make the appointment.
In this case, the JBC held the public interviews for the new candidates on October 13 and 15. It no longer interviewed bets who already went through the process since their interviews were still valid.
The judiciary is independent, but it is the president who is constitutionally mandated to make appointments to the courts. In this case, President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. will appoint his next justice to the High Court after Lazaro Javier reaches the mandatory age of 70 next month.
According to the SC, the short list has already been transmitted to MalacaΓ±ang.
An SC justice must be a natural-born citizen, at least 40 years old, and have been a judge or law practitioner in the Philippines for at least 15 years or more. This is found under Section 7(1), Article VIII of the 1987 Constitution.
On top of this, a JBC 2020 rule states that an SC justice must serve a minimum of 2.5 years. This means that the eldest age of a candidate should be 67.5 years old, since the mandatory retirement age for justices is 70 years old.
On Thursday, the JBC also published the short list of chief justice nominees. These are the five candidates seeking to succeed Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo:
The chief justice and associate justice posts will be Marcosβ second and third appointee to the SC, which is currently dominated by appointees of former president Rodrigo Duterte. β Rappler.com
