IBP endorses Carpio for Chief Justice despite his refusal to be nominated

The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) has endorsed the automatic nomination of Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio to the country's highest post in the judiciary.

IBP national president Abdiel Dan Fajardo announced on Tuesday that the mandatory organization of all Philippine lawyers through its Board of Governors has resolved to nominate Carpio in recognition of the tradition of seniority.

The IBP made the move even after  the most senior justice of the Supreme Court said that he would decline all nominations for the coveted position.

"We thus support the return to, and the recognition of the wisdom, of the long-standing tradition of seniority in the appointment the highest office of the judiciary, the Supreme Court Chief Justice," the IBP said in a statement.

In refusing any nomination to the post, Carpio said he was doing so because he voted against the quo warranto petition that ousted erstwhile Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

He said he didn't want to benefit from the ruling against which he voted.

Carpio was appointed by former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo as SC associate justice in 2001. He is, for the IBP, the "most qualified to lead and manage the Supreme Court and the entire Philippine judiciary.

He and the four other most senior SC magistrates—Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco, Jr., Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, and Lucas Bersamin—were automatically nominated for the post, subject to their written acceptance.

The vacancy in the the top SC post was brought about by the ouster of Sereno, who manned the helm of the high tribunal from August 2012 until her removal from office in May this year.

The landmark decision that unseated her attained finality last week.

Sereno, the first appointee of then-president Benigno Aquino III to the SC, was named top magistrate in what she believes was an "out of the box" move for the former chief executive. —NB, GMA News