JBC questions SC applicant for lack of litigation, gov't experience

Members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) on Thursday quizzed a candidate for Supreme Court justice who has no experience in government and courtroom battles.

Lawyer Joseph San Pedro, an educator and former vice president of the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE), faced questions from JBC members Toribio Ilao Jr, a retired judge, and Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez, who served on the high court for eight years.

Ilao wondered how San Pedro can carry out the task of an SC justice whose main task is to adjudicate cases.

"When I worked as part of the self-regulatory organization of the PSE, I did do adjudication of cases, complaints involving trading participants of the stock exchange," San Pedro said, adding he had also prepared pleadings while working for a law firm.

Gutierrez praised San Pedro's academic credentials, having been a graduate of the Harvard Law School, but "you have no litigation experience."

She even found him too young to become a magistrate of the 15-man SC, where majority of its members are already in their 60s. San Pedro is only 50 years old.

"You are very young, you're only 50. When you join the Supreme Court, you will be like a monk," Gutierrez quipped.

San Pedro, however, said he doesn't mind about leading a monastic life if given the chance to succeed retiring SC Justice Arturo Brion.

"I'm a very private person. I have a limited circle of friends," he said.

The JBC, which screens nominees for vacant posts in the judiciary and the Offices of the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman, is headed by Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Its members include the justice secretary and representatives from Congress, academe, retired SC justices, private sector, and the Integrated Bar of the Philippines.

President Rodrigo Duterte will get to make as many as 12 SC appointments during his six-year term which ends in June 2022.  —KBK, GMA News