The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) is scheduled to interview the five applicants for the position of Chief Justice today.

The position of chief justice became vacant after Maria Lourdes Serenno was ousted by the Supreme Court en banc, voting 8-6, through quo warranto proceedings filed by Solicitor General Jose Calida.

The candidates include SC justices Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, Diosdado Peralta, Lucas Bersamin, Andres Reyes Jr., and Judge Virginia Tejano-Ang of Tagum City, Davao del Norte Regional Trial Court Branch 1.

The SC Public Information Office in its Twitter account said all nominees for the post of Chief Justice will be interviewed from 9 a.m. onwards at the Division Hearing Room, SC New Building.

Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, an ex-officio member of the JBC, said the JBC will hold its final deliberations and selection on 31 August for the shortlisted candidates.

The shortlist will then be endorsed and forwarded by the JBC to President Duterte for approval.

The three senior Associate Justices of the SC were automatically endorsed and became applicants for the position of CJ, namely, de Castro, Peralta and Bersamin.

Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, who did not apply for the post, is Acting Chairman of the JBC even as Associate Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr. declined inclusion in the shortlist.

Reyes, who accepted the nomination for chief justice after being endorsed by former JBC member and retired Sandiganbayan Justice Raul Victorino, will also be interviewed by JBC members.

Bersamin earlier got 10 votes from the SC en banc, followed by de Castro and Peralta with nine votes each, while Reyes garnered two votes. The outcome was forwarded to the JBC.