Sandiganbayan head to be interviewed for Supreme Court seat

Sandiganbayan presiding justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang will face the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) in December for a public interview for an upcoming vacancy in the Supreme Court (SC). 

Cabotaje-Tang is one of the six candidates for the associate justice's seat that will be vacated by Noel Tijam when he compulsorily retires on January 5, 2019.

She was appointed as head of the Sandiganbayan by former President Benigno Aquino III in 2013, when she was the youngest member of the court at 58 years old.

Cabotaje-Tang's fellow anti-graft court justice and then-Ombudsman candidate Efren dela Cruz and Court of Appeals (CA) justices Ramon Cruz, Eduardo Peralta Jr., Ricardo Rosario, and Ramon Bato Jr. will also be interviewed by the JBC on December 5.

There are 14 other aspirants to Tijam's spot in the highest Philippine court, but they will no longer face the JBC in December as their previous interviews are still considered valid.

They are CA justices Manuel Barrios, Apolinario Bruselas, Jr., Rosmari Carandang, Stephen Cruz, Edgardo delos Santos, Japar Dimaampao, Ramon Garcia, Amy Lazaro-Javier, and Mario Lopez; Sandiganbayan justice Alex Quiroz; Tagum regional trial court judge Virginia Tehano-Ang; Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez; Centro Escolar University law school associate dean Rita Linda Jimeno and former Ateneo law dean Cesar Villanueva.

Whoever will replace Tijam, a Duterte appointee, will be the incumbent President's seventh SC associate justice pick, less than three years into his administration. — Nicole-Anne C. Lagrimas/RSJ, GMA News