The Philippine Online Chronicles

Reports are out that President Benigno Aquino III is already asking his legal advisers for a shortlist of candidates to replace Chief Justice Renato Corona as he is about to face his impeachment trial next month.

Presidential spokesperson Edwin Lacierda said Aquino wants his legal team to gather a list but at the same time refrain from encroaching on the function of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

“Very clearly, the President did not instruct the JBC, the President instructed his legal advisers in case that there will be a removal of a chief justice to look for a chief justice but there is still none yet. Let me clarify, there is still no shortlist yet,” Lacierda said.

He emphasized that it is just a contingency measure, especially since the nine-man constitutional body of the JBC can’t screen candidates until a post is declared vacant.

“He (Aquino) will look into their qualifications and see if there are some, if there are people who are worthy to be members of the SC, making sure that there are men and women of probity, integrity and independence. We don’t know yet what the President intends to do with that list. Let’s wait for that list to be formed or to be proposed by the legal advisers of the President,” Lacierda noted.

The President also said that he is open to appointing an outsider, a lawyer not from the ranks of the 15 Supreme Court justices.

He also said he wanted someone in the mold of Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, someone “not known” to him and while therefore be independent.

Among the 15 justices, only three have been appointed by Aquino – Sereno, Bienvenido Reyes and Estela Perlas-Bernabe.

Sereno dissented from the majority decision that granted a temporary restraining order on the travel ban against former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo who is now facing a election sabotage charge.

The most senior of the SC justices is Antonio Carpio, a probable contender for the top post. Carpio’s law firm has been known to have blocked the appointment of Corona.

Powerhouse legal team

In the past weeks, Corona was able to gather a “powerhouse legal team” to defend him with former Supreme Court Associate Justice Serafin Cuevas, lawyer of the influential Iglesia Ni Cristo, in the lead.

Except for Cuevas, the other lawyers approached Corona and offered their services for free. Among them is former Ateneo College of Law Dean Eduardo de los Angeles (also Corona’s fraternity brother from the Ateneo Fraternal Order of Utopia).

Other members of the team are former Court of Appeals Justice Hector Hofileña and former Pamantasan ng Lungsod ng Maynila Law Dean Jose “Judd” Roy III.

However, the Palace said they are not worried about the strong legal team.

"We're not panicking. We believe in our cause. We believe in the evidences that we have. There is nothing to be afraid of," said Lacierda.

Former Solicitor General Frank Chavez also said that the fight is not just in the legal arena.

“This is a battle of propaganda so kailangan maganda rin ang propaganda machineries of both sides,” he said.

The IBP declined to join the defense team because they believed that the impeachment complaint is defective. They are instead planning to embark on an information drive about the war between the executive and the judiciary.

SC first order is validity of impeachment complaint

Meanwhile, the Supreme Court will be working on the complaints questioning the validity of the impeachment case lodged against Corona.

SC spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez said it will be their first order of business for next year.

There are four petitions pertaining to the case filed by lawyers Oliver Lozano and Vladimir Alarique Cabigao, tax informer Danilo Lihaylihay and former Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) president Vicente Millora.

“All the justices have been given copies of the petitions and they are now studying them. Let’s see how the court will act when they resume sessions next month,” Marquez said.

The SC will be sitting en banc on January 17 to tackle the petitions.

At the same time, the Solicitor General Jose Anselmo Cadiz and four former national presidents of the IBP had expressed support for the impeachment case.

In a two-page manifesto they said, “We express our collective sense that the forthcoming impeachment trial of Chief Justice Corona would be healthy for our democracy. As we await the unfolding drama, let us not lose sight of some basic principles. Let us come out of this experience a stronger and better nation.”