Midas top pick among SC justices

By Jeffrey Damicog

Most of the magistrates of the Supreme Court (SC) prefer Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez to be named as their next colleague.

Hon. Jose Midas P. Marquez(Kevin Tristan Espiritu/ FILE PHOTO)

This is based on the SC’s revised voting of candidates who will take the seat which will be vacated upon the January 5 compulsory retirement of Associate Justice Noel Tijam.

According to the results of the voting released to the public on Friday, Midas took the lone top spot with eight votes from among the 14 SC justices.

The rest are members of the Court of Appeals (CA), namely: Justices Manuel Barrios who received seven votes; Ramon Bato Jr., seven votes; Ramon Garcia, seven votes; Amy Lazaro-Javier, six votes; Japar Dimaampao, five votes; and Ricardo Rosario, five votes.

“These votes are merely recommendatory to the JBC (Judicial and Bar Council) who will come up with the official shortlist from which the President will make his appointment,” the SC noted.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, an ex officio member of the JBC, explained that during the JBC deliberations Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin, the JBC ex-officio chairperson, will cast his vote based on the SC voting.

“The SC first votes, then the SC votes is voted by the CJ in the JBC,” he said.

There are 19 candidates vying for the spot which will be vacated upon the retirement of Tijam.

On Friday, the JBC voted 10 candidates for the shortlist which will be submitted to Malacañang where President Rodrigo Duterte will pick who among them will be SC justice.

Those in the shortlist are mostly from the Court of Appeals (CA), namely, Justices Manuel Barrios who received six votes from the JBC; Japar Dimaampao, six votes; Amy Lazaro-Javier, six votes; Ramon Cruz, five votes; Ramon Garcia, five votes; Mario Lopez, five votes; and Apolinario Bruselas Jr., four votes.

The others who made it to the shortlist are Marquez who received four votes, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, five votes, and lawyer Cesar Villanueva, four votes.

Tijam was appointed SC magistrate on March 8, 2017 and was President Rodrigo Duterte’s second appointee at the high tribunal.

Prior his appointment at the SC, Tijam served as a justice at the Court of Appeals (CA).

Tijam is also Duterte’s classmate from the San Beda College of Law where the magistrate graduated cum laude and class salutatorian from the San Beda College of Law in 1971.

He passed the Bar examinations on the same year at the age of 22.