9 aspirants, including ‘habal-habal’ justice, Midas Marquez on JBC shortlist for SC seat
Eight Court of Appeals (CA) justices, including a first-time applicant also known as the "habal-habal" justice, and Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez have landed on the official shortlist of nominees to succeed retired associate justice and now Ombudsman Samuel Martires in the Supreme Court.
The SC's spokesperson, lawyer Maria Victoria Gleoresty Guerra, confirmed the development on Monday, the same day the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), the body mandated to screen applicants to judiciary posts for recommendation to the president, voted on the shortlist.
- CA Justice Dimaampao - 6 votes
- CA Justice Garcia - 6 votes
- CA Justice Barrios - 5 votes
- CA Justice Bruselas - 5 votes
- CA Justice Carandang - 5 votes
- CA Justice Delos Santos - 4 votes
- CA Justice Hernando - 4 votes
- CA Justice Lazaro-Javier - 4 votes
- Court Administrator Marquez - 4 votes
CA justices Stephen Cruz, Oscar Badelles, and Mario Lopez and Tagum City regional trial court judge Virginia Tehano-Ang did not make the JBC's cut.
The list will be transmitted to President Rodrigo Duterte, who is mandated by the Constitution to pick his appointee from the JBC's recommendations.
Martires, Duterte's first appointee to the Supreme Court, retired some five months earlier than he was supposed to after he was named Ombudsman last July.
He was originally scheduled to bow out of the High Court in January 2019, when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. — Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/RSJ, GMA News