Urges JBC to withdraw shortlist, reopen filing of applications for CJ
(Eagle News) — Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman on Friday, Aug. 24, urged the Judicial and Bar Council to “withdraw momentarily” its shortlist of nominees for the Chief Justice post, and to “reopen the filing of applications.”
In a statement, Lagman said the JBC, after all, “acted with indecent alacrity” in shortlisting Justices Teresita de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, and Lucas Bersamin even if they are facing impeachment complaints.
It was Lagman’s group that filed the complaints against the three nominees and four other SC Associate Justices for their vote to oust Maria Lourdes Sereno as Chief Justice.
According to Lagman, impeachment cases are “akin to or even more serious than an administrative case whose pendency bars the appointment of any applicant to a judicial position.”
“The rationalization that the impeachment complaints have not matured to a pending case is flawed because upon the filing of the said impeachment complaints and before they are dismissed, said impeachment complaints are deemed pending just like unresolved criminal and administrative cases,” he said.