Villarama tops JBC voting; four others in shortlist
By Aries C. Rufo, abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak | 12/22/2008 4:20 PM
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Court of Appeals (CA) senior Justice Martin Villarama topped today’s open voting of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for the post to be vacated by Supreme Court (SC) Justice Ruben Reyes Jr.
It was a mixed result for Malacañang’s bets in the SC. One was able to make it to the shortlist but another was essentially disqualified for the meantime because of a pending criminal case.
Villarama was ahead of the pack, with only Senator Francis Escudero not voting for him. Four other candidates made it to the short list. They are: Ateneo law school dean Cesar Villanueva, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Diosdado Peralta, Sandiganbayan Justice Francisco Villarruz Jr., and CA justice Portia Hormachuelos. They got five votes each.
This is the fourth time that Villarama has been considered for the Supreme Court and the third time that he topped the JBC list.
The JBC is required by the Constitution to submit at least three names to the President for vacancies in the judiciary. Those who get a majority of five votes, however, are included in the short list.
This is the first time that the JBC conducted an open voting for nominees in the SC. The JBC succumbed to public pressure in letting the public know how the members voted.
Of the 12 candidates, only CA Justice Andres Reyes Jr. did not get any vote.
Bunag in, Devanadera out
JBC member and House member Matias Defensor told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak that Solicitor-General Agnes Devanadera’s application “was put on hold” pending clarification by the Ombudsman of her plunder case.
The JBC, he said, will request the Ombudsman to explain to the body the real status of Devanadera’s case.
Devanadera has sought a reconsideration of her disqualification from the SC race, saying her plunder case, filed by former Ilocos Sur governor Luis Chavit” Singson is still in the preliminary stage. The case was in connection with the operation and management of Poro Point Special Economic and Freeport Zone in San Fernando, La Union.
She argued that in such an instance, no formal charge has been lodged against her and should not be a ground for disqualification. Besides, she argued, Singson himself has asked the Ombudsman to drop her from the case. JBC rules state that those with pending administrative and criminal cases shall not be considered.
Another aspirant in the same situation with Devanadera, former Internal Revenue commissioner Jose Mario Buñag, was reconsidered by the JBC. Buñag was able to show that the administrative and criminal cases in the Sandiganbayan against him have been dismissed.
It was a short-lived victory for Buñag however. He got eliminated after getting only one vote, courtesy of Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez.
Peralta: close to Palace
Devanadera’s loss however, was Peralta’s gain. Our sources said he is Malacañang’s second best bet to the SC. He managed to squeeze in by garnering the votes of Gonzalez, Escudero, former Supreme Court Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr., law dean Amado Dimayuga, and Integrated Bar of the Philippines representative J Conrado Castro.
Peralta was not among the three choices of the Supreme Court justices. It is a practice for the SC to pick their choices and transmit these to the JBC, which may or may not heed them.
Peralta is reportedly close President Arroyo’s cousin and confidential assistant, Erlinda de Leon, who helps vet appointees to the judiciary. We reported earlier that Peralta is part of the informal vetting process of aspirants to the Court of Appeals and Sandiganbayan.
In the public interview with the JBC, Peralta vowed to be independent amid his late father’s, Manila Court of First Instance Judge Elviro Peralta, friendship with the Arroyo patriarch, the former President Diosdado Macapagal. (Peralta was named after the late president.)
“I would not sacrifice my independence just to accommodate somebody else,” he said last November 24.
Peralta, who also chairs the court’s first division, is best known for his participation in the special division which tried and convicted deposed Pres. Joseph “Erap” Estrada of plunder on September 12, 2008. The chair of that division, Teresita de Castro, is now an SC justice.
Not the first time
Defensor said it was not surprising that Villarama topped the list. “He has been considered in the past. I think this is the fourth time he made it to the shortlist.” Villarama is the husband of SC Clerk of Court Ma. Luisa Villarama.
Villarama came in second in the voting conducted by justices earlier to express their sense of the candidates. It was Villaruz who topped the SC voting while Villanueva came in third.
Defensor said those in the shortlist “are all very qualified and I think the President will not have a hard time choosing from that list.”
While all the three SC choices are in the list, this is not assurance however that they are the front liners in the President’s mind. Sandiganbayan Justice Gregory Ong, despite not being in the SC list and barely making it to the JBC choices, was the President’s pick. Ong, however, was stripped of the appointment after questions on his citizenship arose.--with report from Purple Romero
