4 JBC members absent during Tuesday's interview of SC aspirants

Only half of the eight-member Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) showed up during Tuesday's public interviews of Supreme Court justice aspirants, with the other half — mostly ex-officio members representing the legislative and executive branches — skipping the proceedings.   Two of those who did not attend were ex-officio members for Congress — Sen. Francis "Chiz" Escudero and Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas, who are at the center of a debate on whether Congress should have one or two representatives to the council.   The Supreme Court last July 17 sided with a petition by former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez, who questioned the current eight-member composition of the JBC.   SC Associate Justice Jose Mendoza, who penned the decision, ordered the JBC to reconstitute its membership so that Congress will only have one representative sitting as ex-officio member.   In response to the decision, Congress decided to pull Escudero and Tupas out of the JBC. It said the temporary pullout will last until the issue "is clearly and correctly decided."   Three weeks later, on August 3, the high court temporarily allowed Tupas and Escudero to remain in the JBC pending the resolution of their respective motions for reconsideration.   "Sa palagay ko, [Escudero and Tupas' absence was] still in deference to the Supreme Court resolution with respect to their representation... I'm just speculating but that could be the reason," said JBC member for the academe Jose Mejia late Tuesday afternoon.   Apart from the Congress representatives to JBC, the two other members who failed to show up at Tuesday's interviews were ex-officio member for the executive branch Justice Secretary Leila de Lima and regular member for the Integrated Bar of the Philippines Maria Milagros Fernan-Cayosa, who was on leave.   "Nagkataon lang na kaunti lang ang dumating sa public interviews pero may quorum naman," Mejia stressed.   Aside from Mejia, present in the public interviews were JBC ex-officio chairperson Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, retired Court of Appeals Associate Justice Aurora Lagman, and retired Supreme Court Associate Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr, who arrived on the latter part of the interviews because of a prior engagement.   In their motion for reconsideration, Tupas and Escudero argued that the framers of the 1987 Constitution committed an oversight when they allotted only one slot for Congress in the JBC, on the assumption that a unicameral legislature would be created.   The Constitutional Commission, however, eventually decided to adopt a bicameral legislature.   The Supreme Court said the use of the singular article "a" in the particular section of the Constitution is "unequivocal and leaves no room for any other construction."   The high court emphasized the purpose of the framers of the Constitution when they decided to place the number of JBC members at seven, an odd number.   “This serves a practical purpose, that is, to provide a solution should there be a stalemate in voting,” the high court said.   As it has been in more than a decade, the JBC is composed of eight members, including four ex-officio members representing the three branches of government, namely the chief justice (ex-officio chairman) representing the judiciary; the Justice Secretary for the executive , and the Justice committee chairmen of the Senate and the House of Representatives representing Congress.   The remaining four members come from the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, the academe, and the private sector, as well as a retired member of the Supreme Court.   The JBC interviewed four candidates to fill up the lone vacant Supreme Court associate justice post, namely Court of Appeals Associate Justices Ramon Bato Jr and Rosemari Carandang, former law dean Jose-Santos Bisquera, and Sandiganbayan associate justice Maria Cristina Cornejo. — KBK, GMA News