USec Musngi replaces Leila de Lima as JBC member

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, who is vying for the chief justice post, has already been replaced as an ex-officio member of the Judicial and Bar Council. JBC regular member for the academe Jose Mejia told GMA News Online Friday De Lima was replaced by Undersecretary Michael Frederick Musngi from the Office of the Special Concerns of the Office of the President. Mejia said it was President Benigno Aquino III who selected Musngi to be De Lima's replacement. A graduate of the Ateneo Law School, Musngi is also a member of the school's Aquila Legis fraternity. He was also a former department head of the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority. During a press briefing in Malacañang on Friday, presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said that Musngi was chosen because they believe he will be able to voice the concerns of the President. "Usec Musngi is a lawyer, we need a lawyer present there," he said. "The one who sits [on the JBC should] be an alter ego [of the President] and...he being the undersecretary for special concerns, the President and the executive secretary felt that he would be able to perform the obligation," he added. Earlier, the JBC agreed that De Lima should be replaced so that the executive branch would have a representative in the council.   Normally, ex-officio members represent all branches of government: the chief justice as ex-officio chairman represents the judiciary, the Justice secretary represents the executive branch, and the chairpersons of the justice committees of the Senate and the House of Representatives represent Congress. De Lima was replaced after she inhibited herself from the JBC because she is one of 22 candidates for the post left vacant after the ouster of former Chief Justice Renato Corona. Lacierda, however, noted that Musngi was only replacing De Lima as representative in the panel tasked to select the next chief justice and not as the President's representative in other concerns of the JBC. — with Kimberly Jane T. Tan /LBG, GMA News