JBC’s Mejia: Two terms good for regular council members

A member of the Judicial and Bar Council has no problems with a Senate proposal seeking to limit to just two full terms the length of stay of the body's regular members.

 

Lawyer Jose Mejia, JBC regular member for the academe, said that based on his experience, it took two full terms or eight years for a JBC member like him to learn the ropes and cause the changes one wants in the constitutional body.

 

"Sana at least two terms kasi iyon sa tingin ko ang learning curve ng members so we can continue with whatever innovation we want to introduce," Mejia told GMA News Online on Tuesday.

 

Members of the JBC serve for a period of four years and may be re-appointed by the President.

 

The JBC is constitutionally mandated to screen and vet nominees for vacant posts in the judiciary and the Offices of the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman.

 

The JBC is tasked to prepare a shortlist of nominees, from which the President would pick an appointee.

 

Mejia's statement came following a report by the Senate committee on justice and human rights on Senate Bill 2419, which is a consolidation of three separate bills filed by Senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago, Francis Escudero and Jinggoy Estrada.

 

The Senate report proposed a restriction on the re-appointment of JBC members who have already served two full terms.

 

Santiago earlier explained that the measure was introduced to avoid the possibility of JBC members, in their desire to be reappointed, “to succumb to pressure from the executive to nominate individuals based on political considerations instead of the actual merits and qualifications.”

 

Mejia said he agreed with the Senate bill's goal of preventing "unlimited" JBC terms but said "at most two terms are enough to give a member the opportunity to introduce and implement whatever he or she wants in the JBC."

 

Mejia was appointed to the JBC in 2012 to continue the unfinished term of former JBC member Artemio Tuquero Jr., a former justice secretary. Mejia was re-appointed and started his first full term on July 9. He was confirmed by the Commission on Appointments last week.

 

Mejia said the "pressure" feared by the lawmakers that could plague JBC members was something not exclusive to the JBC but could also hound any appointee in government.

 

"The fear that they are apprehensive about is also present to first-time appointees. It can actually work both ways," Mejia said.

 

"That goes with the nature of appointments. For instance, in the Supreme Court, appointments are also made by the President so that danger will always be there," he said.

 

"Now it would be up to an appointee kung parang tatanaw siya ng utang the loob. But at the end of the day, he or she will have to answer to their conscience," Mejia added.

 

Mejia said he was willing to become a resource person in case the Senate invites him during their deliberation on the bill.

 

Mejia said the proposal, if passed, would only affect regular members since ex-officio members like JBC ex-officio chair Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno and ex-officio member Justice Secrtary Leila de Lima could hold on to their JBC posts as long as they remain with their main posts either as chief justice, Justice secretary or member of Congress.

 

Apart from Sereno and De Lima, completing the roster of current ex-officio members of the JBC are Senator Aquilino Pimentel III and Niel Tupas Jr who take turns in representing Congress in the seven-member JBC.

 

Apart from Mejia, other regular members of the body are retired Court of Appeals Associate Justice Aurora Lagman representing the private sector, lawyer Milagros Fernan-Cayosa representing the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, and newly appointed retired Supreme Court Justice Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez representing retired SC justices.

 

She replaced retired SC associate justice Regino Hermosisima Jr. ( http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/378859/news/nation/ex-sc-justice-who-probed-alleged-napoles-link-in-judiciary-is-new-jbc-member)