THE Judicial and Bar Council will hold an online interview for candidates vying for the associate justice post to be vacated by the retirement of Supreme Court Associate Justice Andres Reyes Jr.
Reyes is set to retire on May 11 when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70. He was appointed to the SC on July 13, 2017 by President Duterte.
Retired Justice Jose Mendoza, JBC regular member and Executive Committee chair, said they are now working on the date of the online interview.
“Considering that the retirement of Justice Andy Reyes was mandatory and, so, predictable, the JBC opened the impending vacancy very early. The deadline for the vacancy was March 3. The JBC was supposed to interview them on March 18 and 19 and then voting but we were pre-empted by the lockdown,” Mendoza said.
He said the JBC decided not to extend the March 3 deadline and since the lockdown has been extended, the members have agreed to the online interview.
“This will be set up soon. We have also resorted to teleconferencing for discussion through a platform made available to us by the SC,” Mendoza said.
President Duterte placed Metro Manila and other areas in the country under enhanced community quarantine last March 17 to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19). The ECQ was supposed to end last April 14 but Duterte extended it to May 15.
Mendoza said the 90-period for Duterte to name Reyes’ replacement will start on May 11.
“We are hopeful that we can start conducting the interviews soonest, so that we can send the list of nominees to the Office of the President as early as possible. This will give the OP sufficient time to vet the candidates and appoint one,” he added.
Whoever is appointed to take Reyes’ post will be Duterte’s 1th appointee in the 15-member SC.
The other Duterte appointees are Associate Justices Alexander G. Gesmundo, Jose C. Reyes Jr., Ramon Paul L. Hernando, Rosmari D. Carandang, Amy C. Lazaro Javier, Henri Jean Paul B. Inting, Rodil V. Zalameda, Mario V. Lopez, Edgardo L. Delos Angeles, and Samuel H. Gaerlan.
Chief Justice Diosdado Peralta was originally appointed associate justice by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo before he was named by Duterte to take over the top judicial post after the retirement of Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin.
Senior Associate Justice Estela M. Perlas Bernabe and Associate Justices Marvic Mario Victor F. Leonen and Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa were appointed to their posts by former President Benigno Aquino III.
The justices led by Peralta will meet in a full court session via video conferencing on Friday, May 8, for Reyes’ retirement ceremony, according to SC Spokesman Brian Keith Hosaka.
Hosaka did not say if the SC, while on video conferencing session, would discuss other matters.
Friday’s session will be the third time that SC justices would meet through video conferencing.
The first time was when it acted on the petition of several persons deprived of liberty who sought their release amid the fear of being infected by COVID-19 in their detention cells. The second time was when the SC authorized the release of the results of the 2019 bar examinations online.
Reyes’ retirement ceremony would be the first judicial ceremony to be held online.
Before his SC stint, Reyes served as the presiding justice of the Court of Appeals. He started his career in the judiciary as a trial court judge in 1987. He was promoted to the CA in 1999.
He is the son of the late Justice Andres C. Reyes Sr., former CA presiding justice, and grandson of the late CA Justice and later of the SC Alex A. Reyes.
