Putting on an act

FRONTLINE

By Ninez Cacho-Olivares

Looks like it really was his justice chief, Leila de Lima, whom Noynoy wanted to take over the helm of the Supreme Court, as he claimed to be dissatified with the Judicial and Bar Counci (JBC) shortlist submitted to him just this week.

But imagine being dissatisfied with a long shortlist, in that there were already some eight candidates from whom he can choose?

But Noynoy claimed that he believes the disqualification and qualifying process gone through by the JBC was “not fair,” saying that the disqualification rule of the JBC against candidates with pending criminal or administrative cases was not applied evenly.

He said not all candidates with disbarment cases were disqualified.

To quote him, Nonoy said: “Am I satisfied? Personally, no. The way I see it, the rules on disqualification were not applied equally. There were nominees who had disbarment cases. In the rules of the JBC, when one has a disbarment case, that nominee cannot be considered. Then the rules applied were different. There were those who had cases who were suddenly absolved. There were also others who really had no case against them, yet they were immediately disqualified. How can that be a fair process?”

Although he did not identify these qualified and disqualified nominees and candidates, any one who followed the reports on the JBC members’ interviews can easily identify these personalities.

For one, clearly, in the matter of a nominee being disqualified due to the disbarment cases, he meant Leila de Lima, who was out of the JBC shortlist.

There was another who had a case against her, his appointee in the SEC: Teresita Herbosa, who didn’t make it to the list.

Another who failed to make it to the list due to a criminal case against him with the Ombudsman was poll commissioner Rene Sarmiento.

When Noynoy spoke of those nominees or candidates who had cases filed against them but were quickly absolved, he must have been referring to his acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, Justice Lourdes Sereno and Solicitor-General Francis Jardeleza. All three had complaints and cases lodged against them, but they were cleared by the SC and the JBC.

Then, when it came to some nominees who had no cases at all that would disqualified them, who were said to have been disqualified, he must have meant nominees such as Raul Pangalanan and others who did not make it to the JBC list.

Surely Noynoy does not expect all of those who have no cases against them to be qualified to land in the JBC shortlist, since all those who got less than the required number of votes would not be included?

But Noynoy, before speaking out, should also have realized that his ex-future Chief Justice, Leila, failed to make it to the list because one member of the JBC brought up the question of integrity and for the JBC to overturn that integrity question, or motion, there would have to be a unanimity of votes, being a consensus body. This was an impossibility.

Still and all, it is difficult to believe that Noynoy is, as he claimed, “dissatisfied” with the names in the shortlist. He is more probably putting on an act to portray himself as someone who has no choice but to choose from a list that is not satisfactory. Then he hopes it can not be said that he is appointing a candidate who will be independent as a CJ.

The way his “alter ego” in the JBC, Federick Musgni voted for his candidates, along with his other allies in the same body had all the names that Noynoy wanted included in the shortlist — save for De Lima’s, it was evident just who among the eight he really wants to appoint as a Noynoy friendly CJ.

And that boils down to Justices Carpio and Sereno, Jardeleza, maybe dark horses such as Justice Abad and Ronnie Zamora.

Nobody but nobody would believe that he would have appointed the likes of the more senior justices such as Teresita de Castro, or Presbitero Velasco or any other senior justices who failed to make it to the shortlist — as he is allergic to anyone who has been appointed by Gloria Arroyo.

That’s another act Noynoy is putting on — complete with his claim of having to choose from a list that is not satisfactory because that is what the Constitution mandates him to do.

That’s a lot of horseshit he spews.