THE Judicial and Bar Council said Tuesday it will next month begin interviewing the 16 aspirants to a coming vacancy in the Supreme Court to be created by the early retirement of Associate Justice Martin Villarama Jr.
Villarama is supposed to retire on April 14 next year when he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 70, but he has opted to step down on Jan. 16 of the same year due to his failing health.
The council said it had scheduled the aspirants’ public interviews on Jan. 7 and 8 next year.
Eight of the nominees will be interviewed on Jan. 7, and they are Court of Appeals Associate Justices Apolinario Bruselas, Rosmari Carandang and Mariflor Punzalan-Castillo; Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Maria Cristina Cornejo, Justice Secretary Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera, Party-list Rep. Cinchona Cruz-Gonzales and lawyer Joe-Santos Bisquera.
Those to be interviewed the next day are CA Presiding Justice Andres Reyes Jr., Associate Justices Jose Reyes Jr. and Stephen Cruz, Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Amparo Cabotaje-Tang, Associate Justice Alex Quiroz, Solicitor General Florin Hilbay, former Commission on Audit chairwoman Maria Gracia Pulido-Tan, and Quezon City Regional Trial Court Branch 90 presiding judge Reynaldo Daway.
The council will then come up with a shortlist in February after the interviews.
The seven-member JBC is the constitutional body tasked to accept nominations to and applications for the vacancies in the judiciary and the Office of the Ombudsman.
The Constitution requires a justice of the high court to be natural-born citizen, at least 40 years old and with at least 15 years experience as a judge in a lower court. The aspiring justice “must [also] be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence.”