Associate Justice Samuel R. Martires emerged as a top favorite to become the next Ombudsman after his peers in the Supreme Court (SC) unanimously endorsed him to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

The first appointee of President Duterte to the High Court, Martires received 11 votes from the 12 justices present at the en banc hearing, SC spokesman Theodore Te said yesterday.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales is retiring on July 26 at the age of 76. She was appointed Ombudsman in 2011 by then President Benigno Aquino III after serving as SC associate justice for years.

The JBC is expected to give weight to the SC recommendation in making the short list of candidates from whom President Duterte will pick the next Ombudsman.

However, Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, an ex-officio member of the JBC, said the recommendation from the SC will be noted and considered by the council.

“SC voting is for the JBC’s (information). It is not meant to be a recommendation directly to the President,” Guevarra said in a text message to reporters.

Martires was the 12th justice in the deliberation but he did not participate in the process that gave the justices the chance to vote for two other candidates, namely, Ombudsman Special Prosecutor Edilberto Sandoval and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello.

A former Sandiganbayan presiding justice, Sandoval obtained four votes while Bello received three votes.

Martires, Sandoval and Bello were the only nominees who received votes from members of the SC whose tradition of recommending candidates for judicial posts had been discontinued during the time of ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

With Sereno being booted out via a quo warranto proceeding initiated by the Office of the Solicitor General, the SC resumed its practice of making recommendations to the JBC.

The other applicants for post of Ombudsman are Sandiganbayan Justice Efren de la Cruz, Judge Carlos Espero II and lawyers Rey Ifurung, Rainier Madrid, Edna Batacan, Felito Ramirez and Rex Rico.

Associate Justices Estela Perlas Bernabe and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa were not present during the SC en banc, Te said.

Martires, 69, had served as trial court judge in Agoo, La Union prior to his appointment to the Sandiganbayan on Oct. 15, 2005 by then President Gloria Arroyo.

He penned the Sandiganbayan decision that approved the plea bargain deal entered into by alleged plunderer retired Maj. Gen. Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman.

In 2011, Martires also penned the Sandiganbayan decision that junked the graft charges against then Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte over the demolition of a park built by his political rival. He also voted against Sereno in ousting her.

The JBC will vote on who will make its shortlist of candidates on July 20 after interviewing them. The body has come under fire for recommending Sereno to the SC despite her failure to submit in full his statement of assets, liabilities and net worth as a professor in the University of the Philippines.

Morales opposed Batacan’s application over an alleged payoff at the Ombudsman.

To make the JBC shortlist, a candidate must get at least four votes from council members.