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Monday, October 22, 2012

JBC ban on public interviews fails transparency test

By Benjamin B. Pulta

It’s definitely a step backward in transparency for the Judicial Bar and Council (JBC), now chaired by the new Chief Justice, Lourdes Sereno, with its ban on public interviews.
A  judicial  reform advocacy group warned the JBC yesterday that its decision to forego public interviews for applicants to the vacancy in the judiciary is a step backward for transparency in the process.
In a one-page letter to the JBC, the Supreme Court Appointments Watch (SCAW) opposed  the  “regression and a major setback in the efforts to enhance the transparency in the appointments process.”
Originally eyed to insulate the  judicial appointment process from politics, a number of critics of the JBC want the constitutional body’s functions reviewed for apparently failing to curb the political horsetrading in the race for judicial posts.
The JBC’s latest decision came in the wake of the policy of “dignified silence” as announced by Chief Justice Sereno.
SCAW said   the live media coverage of interviews of the candidates for post of the chief justice earlier this year “has shown that there is no compelling reason for the JBC to disallow live media coverage of the upcoming interviews.”
“Such live coverage serves not only to inform the public but to improve the credibility of the JBC and the process as well… The immediate past experience 
with live media coverage has shown that there is no compelling reason for the JBC to disallow live media coverage of the upcoming interviews,” they stressed.
The SCAW argued that with the success of the live coverage during the selection of the chief justice should be reason enough to proceed with the new practice.
The letter was signed by Transparency and Accountability Network executive director Vincent Lazatin, Alternative Law Groups coordinator Marlon Manuel and Libertas executive director Roberto Cadiz.
The annnouncement from the JBC on the ban of public interviews came just as President Aquino’s point man in the efforts to forge a juridical entity for the Muslim minority, is scheduled for an interview with the JBC.
Former Universiy of the Philippines dean Marvic Leonen is among the handful of lawyers being eyed for a spot in the Supreme Court (SC) and will be among those whose public interview by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) will no longer  be seen by the public.
Leonen  who was named by Aquino as the Philippine government’s chief negotiator with the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) will be among those to be screened by the JBC for the vacancy in the high court next week.
The scheduled interview  coincides with the decision of the JBC to drop its newly adopted policy of allowing live broadcasts of public interviews of candidates apparently as part of the judiciary’s policy of “dignified silence”.
Aside from Leonen, among the   aspirants who will face the JBC are: Court of Appeals (CA) Associate Justice Ramon Bato Jr., former University of Perpetual Help System Law Dean Jose-Santos Bisquera, CA Associate Justice Rosemari Carandang, and Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Maria Cristina Cornejo on Oct. 23; and former RTC Judge Adoracion Cruz-Avisado, CA Associate Justice Magdangal De Leon, CA Associate Justice Isaias Dicdican, former Department of Energy Secretary Raphael Perpetuo Lotilla, CA Presiding Justice Andres B. Reyes, Jr., CA Associate Justice Jose Reyes, Jr., and CA Associate Justice Noel Tijam on Oct. 25.
The other three candidates, De La Salle University Law Dean Jose Manuel Diokno, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Teresita Herbosa, and former Ateneo Law Dean Cesar Villanueva, had already been interviewed in July  when they were vying for the position of Chief Justice. 
The executive department has distanced itself from the  decision of the JBC to revert to its previous ban on live broadcast of public interviews of candidates for positions in the SC.
Justice Secretary Leila de Lima,  ex officio vice chairman of the body said she had no hand in JBC’s move not to allow live media coverage.
“That’s the decision of the JBC, although I was not part of the meeting when that was decided upon. I’m not privy to the discussions,” she told reporters.
“I need to know the rationale why there will be no more live coverage,” she said.
De Lima was among the members of the JBC who had approved last June a proposition to allow live broadcast of the interviews of candidates for the chief justice post.
Chief Justice Sereno, as ex-officio chairman of JBC, ordered the ban on live broadcast of the interviews. Sereno had announced an SC  policy  of “dignified silence.” 
It can be recalled, however, that the JBC approved just last June requests for live coverage of oral interviews of candidates for chief justice after its members unanimously agreed to delete provisions in Section 5 of its Rule No. 10 that prohibit live TV and radio coverage of the  proceedings. The decision was made upon requests of various groups led by former JBC member Sen. Francis Pangilinan and Transparency and Accountability Network.
The JBC also earlier claimed confidentiality of the psychological and psychiatric evaluation tests of the shortlisted candidates for the post of chief justice and refused to release them.
Sereno, after having been sworn in as chief justice by Aquino and presided over the JBC meetings, rejected the public calls to make these tests public.
Sereno was said to have obtained very low marks in her test, should have been disqualified, and worse, she was said to have been diagonosed as having “depressive markers” whose decisions may be impaired by her emotional and mental state.
She was also described as having her religious convictions interfere in almost everything she does and says.
During her first flag raising ceremony as chief justice, she claimed that the Filipino people and the world were witness to her having been appointed as chief justice by God—and nobody else.
Leonen, who is seen by many as being the likely candidate to be chosen by Aquino, had earlier charged an incumbent associate justice of the Supreme Court of having committed plagiarism.
However, it was also later found that Leonen himself committed plagiarism, for which he has neither explained nor publicly admitted his plagiarism.
It was Sereno who insisted on the ban on public interviews, using the excuse of her policy of “dignified silence.”
However, even in the JBC, she merely has one vote—in the same manner that she only has one vote in the collegial Supreme Court.
The JBC did not have a policy of dignified silence but has not explained why it has suddenly gone back to keeping interviews away from the public.

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