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SENATOR SANTIAGO WAIVES SUPREME COURT "JOB INTERVIEW"

ONLY Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago showed up for the public interview that nominees for the post of Supreme Court Chief Justice are supposed to undergo.

None of the five SC associate justices aspiring to succeed Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban appeared at the Judicial and Bar Council yesterday, claiming that the JBC could very well evaluate their competence through their decisions.

Having learned that the Associate Justices Reynato Puno, Leonardo Quisumbing, Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez and Antonio Carpio were no-shows, Santiago opted to “waive” her right to be interviewed.

Saying she was “slightly cross-eyed and dizzy” after preparing all night for her “job interview,” Santiago said she was very much surprised to find out that her five rivals were no-shows.

Very surprised

“I stepped off the elevator and the media said ‘What was your reaction to the fact that you’re the only one present?’ I was very surprised. The JBC did not tell me what its decision is going to be. I was excused, they continued their deliberations,” she said.

Panganiban, who chairs the JBC, announced yesterday that the JBC had received individual letters from the five associate justices informing the body of their decision not to participate.

“The justices’ option not to appear is their prerogative. Their nominations will be decided on their known track record and decisions,” Panganiban said.

He said he accepted their decision, stressing that the JBC has no power to compel anybody to attend the public interview.

Smartly turned out in pearls and a black striped pantsuit, Santiago rued that her brief appearance at the SC “wasn’t worth the [cost of] dry-cleaning my suit.”

Personality defect

She figured her five rivals are “extremely shy and suffer from a personality defect, in which case no manager will hire them, don’t you agree?”

“I decided that it is in the best interest of fair play not to insist that I should be interviewed as well,” Santiago told Senate reporters.

“I feel that if I insist, it might place my colleagues at an unfair disadvantage. So in the spirit of collegiality I am canceling [the public interview],” she said.

A source close to the deliberations revealed the real story of the failed public interviews, which would have been the first time such interviews were conducted for nominees for the SC top post.

According to the source, who asked not to be named, Panganiban had asked Santiago not to continue with the public interview after the five justices declined to submit to it.

“He’s trying to protect the incumbent justices and to save face for the JBC,” the source said.

If Santiago had gone ahead and been interviewed, it was feared there would have been a public clamor to disqualify the justices who did not show up.

The source said Panganiban was against Santiago “because of his mentor, [former Senate President Jovito] Salonga” and to perpetuate the “tayo-tayo system” (old-boys club) which resists any attempt at an outsider being appointed.

The source said another JBC member also belonged to Salonga’s law office.

Salonga’s revenge?

“It is Salonga’s way of fighting President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo because Santiago is perceived to be pro-Arroyo,” the source said.

Quisumbing, the second most senior magistrate in the court yesterday asked the President to appoint Puno as the latter was the most senior member of the high court.

He warned that members of the judiciary might become demoralized if the seniority rule is not followed. But he noted that it was the sole prerogative of the President to appoint the Chief Justice.

Quisumbing earlier said he would not be participating in the public interview because of a standby resolution in the Supreme Court that there is no need for sitting justices automatically nominated to undergo a public interview.
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