A Supreme Court appointments watchdog has recommended asking the Civil Service Commission to help in conducting background investigation on the nominees to the SC vacancies and requiring the members of the Judicial and Bar Council to explain their votes.

In a dialogue with the Judicial and Bar Council, the Bantay Korte Suprema (BKS) has recommended tapping the CSC in checking the qualifications of the nominees to the SC.

Senator Francis Pangilinan, a former JBC member and a convenor of the BKS, said there is need to have a memorandum of agreement with the CSC to strengthen the background investigation of the nominees to the Supreme Court.

The CSC is the central personnel agency of the government that is tasked to promote accountability in public office. It has the power to issue administrative sanctions or even fire erring government employees.

Vincent Lazatin, executive director of the Transparecy and Accountability Network, told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak this measure will help provide more information about the nominees. “The JBC relies heavily on the investigations of the National Bureau of Investigation.”

Pangilinan told Newsbreak the background investigation of the CSC can supplement the findings of the NBI. “The NBI has done some investigations but these are not enough. The NBI is also overworked.”

Pangilinan said that CSC chair Ricardo Saludo has expressed support for the proposal.

Web cast, access to JBC documents

To ensure transparency, the group also recommended that the JBC should allow a webcast of the public interviews of the nominees. Pangilinan said this will allow anyone who has a computer and is interested to access the interviews when they log on to the Web site of the JBC.

At present, the public interviews are open to public but bringing cameras and other electronic devices is prohibited.

Late last year, Newsbreak made a request to record the public interviews of SC candidates.The JBC granted our request.

Interviews of new candidates to the SC are scheduled within the month.

The group also wanted the JBC to have a “clear cut policy” on access to JBC documents like the curriculum vitae of the nominees, and a mechanism for submission of questions that the public wants to ask to the candidates.

Explain the votes

The group also recommended to the JBC to ask its members to explain their votes.

“We are moving on forward by actually asking them to consider explaining the vote to the public,” said University of the Philippines College of Law dean Marvic Leonen.

“An explanation of the vote can generate more opinion about a particular candidate,” Leonen said, adding that it would make known to the public the reasons behind the appointment.

Leonen added that the Office of the President should also come up with a policy statement outlining its position on what will make a good SC. “Through this, we will know if the criteria they used in choosing the next justices is not based on political influence.”