No SC TRO on Aquino power to appoint justice

The Supreme Court (SC) did not issue yesterday a temporary restraining order (TRO) that would stop President Aquino from appointing a justice to fill up the lone vacancy in the 15-member High Court from the four nominees submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

Instead, the SC required the Office of the President, the JBC, and Chief Justice Maria Lourdes P. A. Sereno, who was also named a respondent, to comment in 10 days on the petition filed by Solicitor General Francis Jardeleza.

Sereno is expected to inhibit herself in the deliberation of Jardeleza’s petition.

The lone vacancy in the SC was a result of the retirement on May 22, 2014 of Justice Roberto A. Abad.

Under the Constitution, the President has 90 days from the date of the vacancy in the SC to appoint a replacement from the nominees submitted by the JBC – a constitutionally mandated office that accepts, screens and nominates appointments in the judiciary and the Office of the Ombudsman up to the rank of Deputy Ombudsman.

Nominated with six votes each were Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justices Apolinario D. Bruselas Jr. and Jose C. Reyes Jr., Commission on Audit (COA) Chair Maria Gracia M. Pulido-Tan with five votes, and Quezon City regional trial court (RTC) Judge Reynaldo B. Daway with four votes.

Aquino has until August 20, 2014 to name one of the four nominees as replacement of Abad.

In his petition, Jardeleza claimed that the JBC committed grave abuse of discretion in excluding him from the list of nominees despite garnering enough votes due to an integrity question raised by Sereno, the council chairperson, during the final deliberations by the council.

“The unlawful exclusion of petitioner from the JBC shortlist impairs the President’s constitutional power to appoint,” he told the SC.

He pleaded the SC to issue a TRO that would enjoin the President “from appointing the associate justice pending determination of merits of this case.”

According to Jardeleza, he was qualified to be nominated by the JBC because he also got four votes like those garnered by Judge Daway.

scr: https://ph.news.yahoo.com/no-sc-tro-aquino-power-appoint-justice-170331924.html

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