JBC campaigns for judge-applicants

By: JUNE S. BLANCO

THE Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) – the council mandated to review and screen applications for positions in the judiciary – visited Bohol for the first time Tuesday to conduct a dialogue with various sectors in Central Visayas and to interview applicants for judgeship. “Bohol is privileged to have Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr. and his team in the light of the fact that we lack judges in the Municipal Circuit Trial Courts [MCTCs] and prosecutors – especially that aside from in Tagbilaran City, the Regional Trial Courts [RTCs] here are spread in Talibon, Carmen and Loay towns,” Gov. Erico Aumentado said. During the dinner Monday the provincial government hosted for the JBC members, RTC judges and Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP-Bohol) at the Bohol Tropics Resort Club, Hermosisima noted that of the total 23 MCTCs here, only 10 are filled up – 13 are vacant.

Aumentado also underscored the lack of prosecutors. Instead of just going from one sala to another when the RTCs were all at the Hall of Justice at the New Capitol Site, the prosecutors are now limited to one or two cases a day as they also need to travel from Tagbilaran City all the way to the situs of the courts in the three towns. “For the wheels of justice to move faster, it is an indispensable need to fill up these vacancies and posts. The visit of Justice Hermosisima's team here is a major breakthrough; it means a faster delivery of justice to our people,” the governor said. “Without delay,” Hermosisima interjected.

True to form, the Hermosisima team interviewed applicants for the magistracy Tuesday afternoon after the dialogue with various sectors that morning also attended by judges and prosecutors from Cebu and Oriental Negros. Among the interviewees was RTC Branch 48 Judge Pablo Magdoza who is applying as a justice of the Court of Appeals (CA). While the JBC also wants the vacancies filled up the soonest time possible, the dearth of applicants still cannot make the council forego with the three-applicant rule, that is, for every position, the JBC must submit at least three names from which the President will choose. Like what team member Justice J. Conrado Castro said, this is embodied in the 1987 Constitution.

“Dura lex, sed lex (The law may be harsh, but it is the law,” he quoted a basic maxim.)

The judiciary may be unfairly sweepingly branded by some as dishonest and corrupt. The furor boils down to proper judicial selection. Hermosisima said the effectiveness of any judicial organization, no matter how it is planned and structured will suffer if it is unable to get honest, dedicated and competent judges. During the open forum, IBP-Bohol President Salvador Diputado asked if the JBC can make it official that endorsements by politicians be considered not among the guidelines or requirements for nomination.

Hermosisima, Castro and Supreme Court Administrator Christopher Lock took turns in assuring especially the lawyers that while they cannot prevent politicians from endorsing applicants – after all, who would know their constituents better – JBC's criteria are the applicant's competence, integrity, probity and independence of mind, and his physical and emotional condition, for which they undergo psychological and psychiatric tests. Politics enters, he said, not for the JBC but for the appointing authority as the President is still a politician.

For his part, Justice Amado Dimayuga made the clarion call for the magistracy. He said it is time to make that financial sacrifice. On the other hand, Justice Raoul Victorino said it has never happened that the President appointed an applicant not screened by the JBC. He also said private practitioners applying for judgeship are not discriminated against. They are urged to become members of the bench, especially because as lawyers, they accept all kinds of cases and therefore have the experience to bank on. Supreme Court Clerk of Court Ma. Luisa Villarama acted as moderator. The team left for Mindanao for the same dialogue the following day.

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