MALACANANG has launched a quiet but intense lobby for the inclusion of Solicitor General Agnes Vicenta T. Devanadera in a shortlist to be submitted to President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo by the Judicial and Bar Council, from where she would pick a new justice to fill the next Supreme Court vacancy, a JBC insider said Monday.
The JBC insider told VERA Files that Malacanang representatives have been talking to JBC members, signaling that it wants Devanadera to replace retiring SC Justice Ruben T. Reyes.
Reyes is one of the seven justices either retiring or seeking early retirement due to health reasons from January to December 2009.
The JBC insider did name the JBC members who have been approached by Palace representatives.
The information from the JBC insider about the Malacanang lobby in behalf of Devanadera appears to have been confirmed by former Senate President Jovito Salonga.
In a short extemporaneous speech at the Supreme Court compound, Salonga said: “Laganap na ang balita (Word is out). President Arroyo wants to choose Solicitor General Devanadera (as the next SC member) regardless of the desire of the JBC.”
He described Devanadera as “very close” to the President.
Salonga added: “Sana hindi mahaluan ng political considerations or personal considerations ang pagpili ng mga Supreme Court justices (We hope that political and personal considerations would not influence the selection of the Supreme Court justices).”
The JBC has scheduled a public interview on Wednesday and Thursday of the 14 candidates for the position of associate SC justice to be vacated next Jan. 3 with Reyes’ retirement. Devanadera, who passed the bar in 1977 with a grade of 79 percent, is scheduled to be interviewed by the JBC on Wednesday morning.
The Constitution provides that any SC vacancy should be filled within 90 days from its occurrence.
Devanadera, a former government corporate counsel, is the 41st and first woman solicitor general of the Philippines. Arroyo appointed her as solicitor general on Feb. 22, 2007, replacing Antonio Nachura who was appointed to the SC.
Devanadera was a one-time officer in charge of the Department of Justice, during the time when Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez sought medical treatment for his kidney problems. She graduated from the Ateneo Law School.
Her name was reportedly deleted from a final list of JBC nominees for a vacancy at the SC because of pending graft and regular administrative cases against her.
Also on Monday, the Bantay Korte Suprema was launched at the SC compound, becoming the second group to act as a watchdog in a series of JBC selection and nomination processes for the expected SC vacancies next year.
On Nov. 7, the civil-society-media-led group Supreme Court Appointments Watch (SCAW) Citizens’ Search Committee was unveiled
According to University of the Philppines College of Law dean Marvic Leonen, Bantay Korte Suprema includes former Philippine presidents, retired Supreme Court justices as consultants, professors from the legal academe, lawyers’ associations, law practitioners, selected legislators, members of chambers of commerce, and media organizations.
Leonen called on Arroyo and members of the JBC to be “true statesmen” by going beyond “parochial concerns” in filling the SC vacancies.
“A selection process done behind a veil casts doubts on the very credibility of the appointments, considering the peculiar situation that the current Chief Executive has the power to name almost half of the High Tribunal’s membership,” a Bantay Korte Suprema statement said.
While Justice Alicia Martinez has announced that she is seeking early retirement for health reasons, the six SC justices expected to retire next year are Reyes, Adolfo Azcuna, Dante Tinga, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Leonardo Quisumbing, and Minita Chico-Nazario. Of the seven, only Justices Ynares-Santiago and Quisumbing were not Arroyo appointees.
By the time Arroyo ends her term of office by 2010, she will have appointed 14 out of the 15 SC justices.
Included in the list of the JBC interviewees this Wednesday and Thursday are former Bureau of Internal Revenue Commissioner Jose Mario C. Bunag (who passed the Bar in 1968, with a rating of 86.85 percent), Court of Appeals Justice Mariano C. del Castillo (1977, 77 percent), Court of Appeals Justice Juan Q. Enriquez Jr. (1968, 78.12 percent), former Commission on Elections Commissioner Remedios A. Salazar Fernando (1977, 84.32 percent), Court of Appeals Justice Andres B. Reyes Jr. (1978, 79.17 percent), former Arellano Law School Dean Rodolfo D. Robles (1967, 89.6 percent), Sandiganbayan Justice Edilberto G. Sandoval (1963, 80.80 percent), Ateneo de Manila Law School Dean Cesar L. Villanueva (2nd placer in the 1981 bar) , Court of Appeals Justice Martin S. Villarama Jr. (1971, 80.75 percent), and Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Francisco H. Villaruz Jr. (1967, 84.6 percent).
Posted at 4:30 p.m. , 17 November 2008