The Supreme Court on Friday released the names of 4 nominees to the post to be vacated by Justice Consuelo Ynares-Santiago on October 5.

The 4 new nominees, who are scheduled to be interviewed by the Judicial Bar Council on September 23 are Permanent Representative to the World Trade Organization Ambassador Manuel A.J. Teehankee, Court of Appeals Justices Isaias Dicdican, Noel Tijam, and lawyer Eduardo Lizares.

They will be joined in the shortlist by former Energy Sec. Raphael “Popo” Lotilla and Justice Sec. Agnes Devanadera who were previously nominated to the post. Devanadera has been considered again for the SC seat after being previously disqualified for having pending cases at the Office of the Ombudsman.  

Controversial pardon

Three of new nominees have figured in past controversies. Teehankee, for instance, sought the assistance of former Justice Sec. Raul Gonzalez to have Malacañang hand one of its most contentious pardons in 2008.

Teehankee served at the Department of Justice as undersecretary along with now Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez. Before his appointment as representative to the WTO, he also served as Government Corporate Counsel.

In 2008, then Gonzalez admitted that Teehankee requested him to facilitate the release of his brother Claudio Teehankee from jail. Gonzalez said that Teehankee visited him in September 2008 before he left for Switzerland and brought up his brother’s pending application for clemency.

Teehankee’s older brother, Claudio, was convicted in 1995 for the murder of Swedish-Filipino Maureen Hultman and Roland John Chapman. Three weeks after Teehankee conferred with Gonzalez, Pres. Arroyo commuted the sentence of Claudio and set him free.

Claudio was sentenced to reclusion perpetua (20-40 years) and two sentences of reclusion temporal (8-14) years. By the time he was released, he had spent 17 years in prison, which in good time conduct allowance, is equal to 21 years.

Many cried foul over Malacañang’s decision to free Claudio, however. Rodolfo Diamante, executive director of the CBCP Episcopal Commission on Prison Pastoral Care, told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak in an earlier interview that Claudio hardly met the conditions for an executive clemency.

“First, he’s not 70 years old. He’s not terminally ill. Second, he has not yet met the minimum requirements, third, we don’t know if he has really changed for the better,” he earlier explained.

But the Palace defended Claudio’s release, and said that it has undergone thorough review by the Board of Pardons and Parole.

Gov’t counsel

As Government Corporate Counsel, Teehankee saw himself on the forefront of the government’s arduous legal battle with the Philippine International Air Terminals Co. Inc., over the construction of the $650 million-Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3.

Teehankee, along with then Solicitor General Alfredo Benipayo bucked the suggestion of Chief Justice Hilario Davide to enter into mediation talks with PIATCO and instead moved for the nullification of the government contracts awarding the NAIA III operations to the said company.

He also oversaw the government’s 2004 debt-to-equity deal between the Metropolitan Waterworks and Sewerage Systems and the Lopez-owned Maynilad Water Services, Inc. Under this setup, P8 billion in unpaid concession fees were converted into a 61-percent government stake in Maynilad.

Critics scored the deal for taking on the form of a bailout, as they alleged that the government would also in effect take on the water company’s P11-billion debts.

Teehankee was appointed as Permanent Representative to the WTO in May 2004. Like his father, retired SC Justice Claudio Teehankee Sr., he completed his law studies in Ateneo de Manila University and topped the bar examinations. He also practiced law in New York.

Not for sale

Another contender, Dicdican, is the most senior among CA Cebu magistrates. In 2007, his name was dragged into the “Justice for Sale” controversy, where CA justices allegedly issued favorable decisions to litigants for a price.

Dicdican and the other Cebu justices denied the charge and challenged the complainants to identify the allegedly corrupt justices in the proper channels.

The High Court was expected to rule on three administrative issues in March 2008. Instead, upon the suggestion of then Justice Ruben Reyes, it merely considered re-organizing the appellate court in order to address the problem and also discourage the familiarity of jurists with local politicians.

Dicdican opposed this and explained that the High Court would fail to effect such changes unless it amends Republic Act 8246 which expanded the number of CA justices from 51 to 69.

The SC eventually ruled to keep the status quo. It was silent, however, on the veracity of the claims made against the justices.

Last March, the SC dismissed an administrative complaint against Dicdican for lack of merit. Dicdican was accused of participating in a civil suit involving Sr. Maria Pacencia Bandalan and a student named Krissyl Asparen even after he was asked to inhibit on the ground that he stood as counsel for religious organizations, one of which Bandalan is a member of.

It turned out that Dicdican actually inhibited, and that his name was erroneously included in a resolution on the case. 

Dicdican also penned the May 2009 decision which affirmed a DOJ resolution junking criminal complaints against the officers of PIATCO and its German partner, Fraport AG. Lawyer Jose Bernas has accused the company of monopolizing services in NAIA 3 through an addendum to the Piatco Shareholders Agreement in 1999.

Dicdican and his division members Associate Justices Edgardo Cruz and Marlene Gonzales-Sison disagreed, however and ruled that PIATCO provided the addendum only to make the operations of NAIA 3 easier.

Prior to his appointment to the appellate court, Dicdican served as presiding judge of Cebu City RTC Branch 11. He also worked as legal counsel for the Aboitiz group of companies and served as a director of the Metropolitan Cebu Water District.

Dicdican finished law in University of San Carlos and placed eleventh in the bar exams in 1970.

Reversal for GMA ally

CA Justice Tijam, meanwhile, recently hogged the headlines following his division’s decision to partially grant the petition for writ of amparo and habeas data of Filipino-American activist Melissa Roxas.

Roxas claimed she was abducted and tortured by members of the military last May.

Tijam penned the decision of the CA 5th Division, which prohibited the military from publicly showing any records which point to Roxas as a member of the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army.  The military had earlier presented video footages of Roxas allegedly training in an NPA camp.

The CA also instructed the Armed Forces of the Philippines to protect Roxas and her family from harassment.

While Tijam drew praise from human rights organizations for his decision on the Roxas case, he was accused of impropriety following his division’s acquittal of former Occidental Mindoro Rep. Jose Villarosa on charges of double murder.

In 2008, Tijam reversed a lower court’s decision convicting Villarosa of killing Michael and Paul Quintos, sons of his rival Ricardo Quintos, due to insufficient evidence.

Villarosa and his wife Deputy House Speaker Amelita Villarosa are allies of Pres. Arroyo.

When the Palace was assailed for reportedly distributing P500,000 in cash to solons in exchange for supporting a weak impeachment complaint against Arroyo, it was Villarosa who said that the money came from the funds of Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino.

Quintos said that he suspected something was afoul when the 5th division allowed Villarosa to post a P200,000 bail. He threatened to file administrative charges against Tijam, whom he alleged was bribed to free Villarosa.

Tijam has been at the CA since 2003. He was the Presiding Judge of Quezon City RTC before he was appointed, and also served as the Assistant Vice President and Deputy Corporate Secretary of the Government Service Insurance System. 

He graduated cum laude from the San Beda College of Law in 1971, and passed the bar exams at the age 22. 

UP Academician

Lizares, a professor from the UP College of Law, is also a partner in the Padilla Law Office. He completed his Master of Laws in Harvard, and was admitted to the New York State Bar in 1987.

A graduate of UP Law, he ranked 8th in the bar exams in 1982 with an average of 88.55. He has worked at the SC before, as a law clerk for Justice Florentino Feliciano.

Lizares teaches commercial law and also authored “Arbitration in the Philippines and the Alternative Dispute Resolution Act of 2004, R.A. 9285.”