MANILA – A Supreme Court (SC) official and eight magistrates of the Court Appeals (CA) were included in the shortlist of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) for the SC Associate Justice post.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, JBC ex officio member, confirmed that those on the shortlist are Court Administrator Midas Marquez and CA Justices Japar B. Dimaampao, Ramon Garcia, Manuel Barrios, Apolinario D. Bruselas Jr., Rosmari Declaro Carandang, Edgardo De Los Santos, Ramon Paul L. Hernando, and Amy C. Lazaro-Javier.
Based on the JBC's voting results, Dimaampao and Garcia got six votes each while Barrios, Bruselas and Carandang got five votes.
De Los Santos, Hernando, Lazaro-Javier and Marquez, meanwhile, got four votes each.
The vacancy was due to the president's appointment last July of SC Associate Justice Samuel R. Martires as Ombudsman replacing Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Marawi City-born Dimaampao, 55, is the youngest appointee to the CA and has been endorsed to the high court by Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Governor Mujiv Hataman two years ago.
Only one other Muslim, Associate Justice Abdulwahid Bidin, has been appointed to the top tribunal in the late 1980s.
Last week, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio formally opposed Marquez' bid for the SC justice post, claiming that the latter used influence to have the disbarment case against her dismissed.
The case stemmed from a July 2011 incident where she punched Davao sheriff Abe Andres during a demolition in Agdao district in Davao. Andres had insisted on a demolition even as Mayor Sara asked Andres to put off the demolition for at least two hours for talks with the settlers to proceed.
A Marquez supporter, Gemma Sotto sought an audience with the presidential daughter to inform her that the disbarment charges filed by a sheriff's association in connection with the incident will be dropped. (PNA)
