High Court to rule on Congress representation in JBC

THE Supreme Court (SC) will rule Friday on whether to allow two representatives from Congress in the membership of the vetting body Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).
Gleo Guerra, SC spokesperson, said the magistrates will continue deliberations Friday so that the JBC may be guided on how many representatives of Congress should be allowed to join their deliberation on Monday on who should be shortlisted for the position of Chief Justice.
The High Court held oral arguments Thursday on the petition filed by former solicitor general Francisco Chavez, who questioned the present eight-member composition of the JBC, which he said runs counter Section 8, Article 8 of the Constitution, which explicitly states that there should only be one representative from Congress.
Only nine justices participated in the oral arguments, while five magistrates who were nominated for the top SC post took no part, namely: Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Arturo Brion and Maria Lourdes Sereno.
Justice Arturo Abad, who was also nominated, however, took part. Sitting as acting chair during the hearing was Justice Diosdado Peralta, who is concurrently the acting chair of the JBC.
During the oral arguments, Senator Joker Arroyo, who represented Senator Francis Escudero, who sits as member of the JBC, together with Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas, labeled as “plain inadvertence” the wordings of the constitutional provision that there should be “a representative from Congress” in the composition of the JBC.
Arroyo told SC magistrates that Section 8, Article 8 should be taken in the context of a unicameral system of government, which was the original intention of the framers of the 1987 Constitution, instead of the present bicameral system where the legislature is divided into two chambers – the Senate and the House of Representatives.
He said the oversight was made at the time when the 1987 Constitution was being drafted, and the country was shifting to a bicameral form of government. He insisted that the JBC will not be complete with just one branch of Congress – either Senate or the House of Representatives – represented.
The senator said the High Court should take a long look in the constitutional provision and take into consideration the intent of the framers.
He pointed out that the five Chief Justice who sat at the SC since the 1987 Constitution was drafted exercised judicial activism by becoming policymakers and not just interpreters of the law when they “relaxed” said provision and allowed two representations for Congress in the JBC.
“When the situation calls for judicial remedy, the court should answer to it, it should respond. A single petition by one petitioner will override already what other chief justices in their wisdom, allowed. They’re happy enough with eight members, so why change it? Changing it will only cause problems. Why fix, what ain’t broke? What I’m saying is that, it will not be a new approach; it has been done in the past. It can be done now,” he said.
“The only issue is, should we follow the letter (of the Constitution) or should we follow the intent? I respectfully submit we should follow the intent,” he added.
Aside from a representative of Congress, the JBC is also composed of the Chief Justice as ex officio chairman, the Secretary of Justice, and a representative of the Congress as ex officio members, a representative of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, a professor of law, a retired member of the SC, and a representative of the private sector.
SC justice Jose Catral Mendoza, who earlier penned the majority decision in favor of Chavez’s petition, agreed that there should only be seven members in the JBC. He said the SC has no authority to add one more to that number.
Associate Justice Jose Perez said the inadvertence Arroyo spoke of was never proven, and is at best just a speculation.
“The Constitution should be respected as it was ratified by the Filipino people. By what capacity does the SC say that the ratified provision is not correct?” he asked.
Arroyo pointed out that the inadvertence was not given much importance then because the people were only interested in the structure. He also noted that even Fr. Joaquin Bernas, a member of the constitutional commission, stated in the pleadings that there had been an inadvertence, but his statement has never been controverted by other framers of the Constitution.
Justice Mariano del Castillo proposed that both chambers of Congress should just form a bicameral committee to resolve the conflict on who should be sent to represent congress in the JBC.
During his interpellation, Chavez challenged the argument of Arroyo that there was an inadvertence, pointing out that the constitutional provision was explicit and unambiguous, thus there is no more room for interpretation.
“‘A’ means one, single, solitary, as simple as that. Judicial inquiry is already complete. There is no need for us to go to the extrinsic means. There is no need to say ‘seven’ because there is no need to state the obvious. There is no inadvertence. There is pure intent to provide only one representative from Congress,” he said.
Chavez likewise lashed at the Senate and the House for saying they will no longer send a representative to the JBC, saying this smacks of childishness on the part of lawmakers to hold hostage the JBC’s voting process.
“Let the JBC vote as originally constituted. Not sending a representative to the JBC is a childish threat. Growing old is inevitable but growing up is an option,” he said.
Even if Congress fails to send a representative, he said there will still be quorum with six remaining members present.
Two resolutions have been filed Thursday at the House of Representatives insisting that there should be two representatives from Congress in the JBC.
The twin resolutions were principally authored by House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr., House Majority Neptali Gonzales II and Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas, an ex-officio member of the JBC in his capacity as chairman of the House committee on justice.
Senator Francis Escudero, the chairman of Senate committee on justice and human rights, is also ex officio member in the JBC.
“Reducing the representation and vote of the two houses of Congress in the JBC to one representative and one vote would effectively dilute the participation and role of the electorate in the screening and selection of nominees to the judiciary, diminish the independence of a co-equal and coordinate body, and depart from the principle of checks and balances inherent in a democratic and tripartite system of government,” House Resolution (HR) 2615 stated.
In House Resolution (HR) 2616, the House asked the JBC to “defer the consideration of all nominees and the preparation of the shortlist to be submitted to the President for the position of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court” pending the resolution of the motion for reconsideration.
Last week, the JBC screened all 20 nominees to the post vacated by ousted Chief Justice Renato Corona.
http://www.sunstar.com.ph/manila/local-news/2012/08/02/high-court-rule-congress-representation-jbc-235406

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