The Judicial and Bar Council said Tuesday there are 13 applicants for the vacancy in the Supreme Court that arose from the promotion of Teresita Leonardo-de Castro to Chief Justice in August.
The council made the announcement even as Senior Justice Antonio Carpio becomes acting Chief Justice Tuesday, with the mandatory retirement of De Castro.
Carpio is the most senior justice of the 12 of the 15 members of the high court. There are three vacancies in the 15-member bench: the posts of chief justice and two associate justices.
This will be the second time that Carpio assumes the post of Chief Justice this year.
He was also Chief Justice in March when Maria Lourdes Sereno took her indefinite leave of absence after she was removed as Chief Justice by the high court.
In an advisory, the JBC listed the aspirants and set their public interviews on Oct. 18.
The applicants for the post of associate justice in the high court are Court of Appeals Associate Justices Japar Dimaampao, Ramon Garcia, Manuel Barrios, Apolinario Bruselas, Rosmari Carandang, Edgardo delos Santos, Ramon Paul Hernando, Amy Lazaro-Javier, Oscar Badelles and Stephen Cruz; Sandiganbayan Justice Alex Quiros; former Ateneo law dean Cesar Villanueva; and De La Salle University law vice dean Rita Linda Jimeno.
But only Jimeno and Quiroz will face the JBC for the public interviews since the other 11 aspirants has already been interviewed when they applied earlier for another vacancy in the high court.
Nine of the applicants”•Dimaampao, Garcia, Barrios, Bruselas, Carandang, Delos Santos, Hernando and Javier”•were shortlisted by the JBC recently for another vacancy in the high court that was left by the appointment of Ombudsman Samuel Martires in July. Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez was also in the shortlist.
Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, an ex-officio member of the JBC, said President Rodrigo Duterte was expected to appoint Martires’ replacement soon.
The JBC, the seven-member council tasked to vet aspirants in the judiciary, invited the public to submit comments or any opposition to any of the candidates until Oct. 17.
The JBC has also opened the vacancies for the positions of chief justice and another associate justice to be left by the retirement of De Castro today and of Associate Justice Noel Tijam in January next year, respectively.