Drilon pushes for Carpio-led SC after De Castro retires in five weeks

Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon on Tuesday expressed support for the appointment of Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio as Chief Justice after Chief Justice Teresita De Castro retires in early October.

Drilon said President Rodrigo Duterte had expressed his preference to appoint the most senior magistrate to the helm of the Supreme Court but Carpio had declined all nominations for the post.

Carpio said he didn't want to gain from the ouster of erstwhile Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. He voted against the ouster via a quo warranto rap that the SC has upheld.

"Unless I am wrong, the President did not close the door to future nominations of Carpio as next Chief Justice," Drilon said in a statement.

"In fact, the President’s statement that seniority is his major and principal consideration in appointing individuals to the government boosts Carpio’s chance of becoming the next chief justice," he added.

"Carpio declined the nomination for the vacancy created by the removal of Sereno because he did not want to benefit from the removal of Sereno, which he has opposed," Drilon said.

"But Carpio’s reason for declining any nomination for chief justice is no longer applicable today, because the vacancy that will be created next is by reason of de Castro’s retirement – not the removal of Sereno," he added.

De Castro on Tuesday took her oath as Chief Justice before the en banc.

She will be the Chief Justice until October 8 when she turns 70, the mandatory retirement age.

"I urge the most senior associate justice of the Supreme Court, Justice Carpio, to reconsider his stand and heed the call for him to apply as a successor of de Castro. I urge him to apply as the next chief justice," Drilon said. —NB, GMA News