Describing it as a “brazen” attempt to undermine the Constitution and the country’s institutions, a prestigious lawyers’ group condemned Wednesday the move by Malacañang and its allies in the Judicial and Bar Council to name a new Chief Justice.
 
The Philippine Bar Association (PBA), in a letter to the JBC, also urged Chief Justice Reynato Puno “to exercise his leadership in this issue and follow through with his moral force campaign to denounce debilitating ills in our society, especially those structures that promote, breed and spawn corruption.”
 
The PBA sent copies of their letter to the convenors of the moral force movement which Puno founded.
 
The PBA reminded Puno that even if he was appointed by President Arroyo as first among equals in the Tribunal, “he is expected to be the first to uphold the independence of the judiciary and promote the Rule of Law.”
 
Puno, who is also ex-officio chair of the JBC, is yet to make his stand on the issue. Quezon City Rep. and JBC member Matias Defensor Jr. Defensor has asked the JBC to start the nomination process for the Chief Justice post and to allow President Arroyo to appoint Puno’s successor even before his retirement on May 17.
 
The JBC, which vets nominees to the judiciary, has deferred voting on the Defensor proposal. The proposal will be tackled in next week’s JBC meeting.
 
The Defensor proposal has triggered acrimonious debates and has raised suspicions that President Arroyo is bent on covering all bases as insurance from charges after she steps down from power in June.
 
To prevent the outgoing President from making midnight appointments, the Constitution bars the President from making appointments two months before the presidential elections and until his or her term expires on June 30. Puno’s retirement and the resulting vacancy in the SC is within this election-ban rule.
 
This explains why Defensor wanted the JBC to start the nominations for the Chief Justice post this early and for the President to pick Puno’s successor from the list before the election ban on new appointments becomes effective.  The election-ban rule starts on March 10.
 
In its letter, the PBA said the move to hasten the nomination and appointment of a new Chief Justice “can easily be interpreted as an attempt to undermine the institutions of the Republic to perpetuate the incumbent President in power and insulate her and her administration, at the expense of judicial independence.”
 
The PBA said judicial independence “is now under threat by the 11th hour proposal of Defensor” even as it argued that action by the JBC on the proposal would be unconstitutional.
 
The group argued that under the Charter, the President can only exercise her power to fill up positions “only when a vacancy exists.” In Puno’s case, the vacancy will only exist on May 17.
 
“Thus for the JBC to begin at this time the preparation of the list of 3 nominees…to appoint a new Chief Justice would be an exercise in futility, not to mention unconstitutional,” the PBA said.
 
The group also shot down the argument by Defensor that there will be a leadership vacuum after Puno retires without a ready successor. The group said the Judiciary Act of 1948 states that the most senior member of the SC could act as Chief Justice, in the absence of a regular appointment.
 
The PBA also described as false Defensor’s claim that only a permanent Chief Justice can certify decisions of the Court. “Whenever the Chief Justice is abroad or on leave, the most senior associate Justice becomes the acting Chief Justice and certifies all decisions. This has been the practice under the 1935, 1973 and present 1987 Constitution.”
 
The PBA reminded the JBC to live up to its constitutional mandate to insulate the judiciary from politics, recalling previous instances where the body held its own against Malacañang pressure.
 
The group cited for instance the tug of war between the JBC and then President Ramos who had pressured the JBC to submit its list of nominees to the SC before he stepped down in June 1998.
 
The JBC, chaired then by Chief Justice Andres Narvasa, however did not budge and rejected Ramos’s request. Narvasa told Ramos that the JBC would only convene after the elections, citing the election-ban rule.
 
The PBA is the oldest national organization of lawyers throughout the country. Its past presidents include Chief Justice Jose Abad Santos, Senator Lorenzo Tanada Sr., Senator Edgardo Angara, Justice Jose Feria, current JBC member J Conrado Castro, among others.