MANILA - Malacañang is reported to be engaged in intense lobbying for its favored nominees to fill up the two vacancies in the Supreme Court (SC).

The current Palace "activity" in the High Court may have something to do with the fresh efforts in the House of Representatives to push for charter change, legal community sources said.

The lower House approved late Tuesday night House Resolution 1109 convening a constituent assembly (con-ass) that will approve charter amendments even without the participation of the Senate.

This charter change issue is expected to reach the doorsteps of the Tribunal, which could be the last stumbling block to the initiative.

Abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak sources confirmed “there was a strong lobby” to vote for businessman Rodolfo Robles, whose family is known to be close to the Macapagal clan.

Robles got six votes from 13 of the SC members who took part in Tuesday’s voting. The SC voting, although it is not part of the vetting process of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), is meant to express the Court’s sentiments on those applying for the SC.

He was among the top six preferred nominees of the SC, out of the 27 who applied for the two positions left behind by former Justices Alicia Austria Martinez and Dante Tinga. Each justice can vote for five nominees.

Bro. Mike lobbying?

Court of Appeals Justice Josefina Salonga was the top choice, getting eight nods from the SC.

We gathered from our SC sources that women justices in the Tribunal campaigned for her with a quid pro-quo. 

“They voted for choices of other justices in exchange for the other justices voting for Salonga,” one source said. There are currently four women SC justices—Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Minita Chico-Nazario, Teresita de Castro, and Conchita Carpio-Morales.

Another source, who has intimate knowledge of the Court, said El Shaddai leader Bro. Mariano 'Mike' Velarde is lobbying for Salonga.

The JBC is expected to vote on Monday (June 8) on who should be included in its shortlist that will be submitted to the President. It is from this list that Mrs. Arroyo will pick the two new justices.

Lotilla's chance

One nominee, who spoke to us on condition of anonymity, said that aside from Robles, the Palace is also lobbying for UP College of Law professor Raphael Lotilla.

Lotilla was Arroyo’s energy secretary from 2005 to 2007. “If Lotilla lands in the JBC shortlist, then he has a good chance of being appointed,” the nominee said.

Lotilla was a Senate and Palace adviser on the Japan-Philippines Economic Partnership Agreement (JPEPA), and a Palace adviser on the controversial ancestral domain agreement with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), which was struck down by the High Court as unconstitutional.

He is currently executive director of the Partnerships  in Environmental Management for the Seas of East Asia (PEMSEA) Resource Facility, a project funded by United Nations agencies. 
 
Palace interest

To observers, the President’s choices for the two vacancies may yet provide an indication of how serious is the charter-change initiative in the House.

Since the House approval of a constituent assembly will need to have the imprimatur of the High Court, it has become more imperative to stack the Court with pliable justices willing to accede to Malacañang’s wishes.

A nominee admitted to abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak that emissaries from Malacañang wanted to  make sure that prospective appointees to the SC should toe the Palace line.

The nominee related an incident where a Malacañang official specifically asked the candidate’s position on charter change, and who the nominee would support to succeed Chief Justice Reynato Puno.

“I said, 'I will cross the bridge when I get there',” the nominee said. We are withholding the name of the nominee so as not to jeopardize the candidate’s chances.