‘Seniority an important marker for any Chief Justice nominee’

Associate Justice Marvic Leonen yesterday urged the five senior magistrates of the Supreme Court to accept their nomination as the next Chief Justice on the basis of their senior status in the judiciary. Leonen said seniority is an important qualification for the post.

According to him, seniority is a marker of experience, an indicator of a person who knows his or her colleagues.

He explained one who stays long in the judiciary becomes familiar with the staff, chiefs of offices, the judges of the lower courts and even the appellate courts.

The five most senior magistrates include acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, and Lucas Bersamin.

Traditionally, the five most senior justices are automatically nominated for the top judiciary post.

He said acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio has been with the SC for more than a decade and has seen how Associate Justice Teresita Leonardo-Castro works like a horse and comes up with good ideas.

Justice Diosdado Peralta is also seen as a leading light for acting quickly on cases and getting people to work together even Justice Lucas Bersamin is somebody who gets along well with colleagues and has experience from the lower court.

Justices Velasco and De Castro, however, are set to retire in August and October this year, respectively.

Carpio previously said he would decline a nomination for the top SC post because he does not want to benefit from the quo warranto petition that ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

A former University of the Philippines law dean, Leonen said he does not aspire to head the SC since the position requires a particular attitude or workload he cannot imagine doing right now.

“The work of a Chief Justice requires some sort of capacity or an attitude that right now I cannot imagine myself doing. Again, as I told you, you have to be able to find a middle ground, you have to have the gravitas to be able to bring people to listen to each other and then later on, come out with a decision,” Leonen said.

“I have served close to six years in the Supreme Court. More and more I would think that seniority is a marker of something,” said Leonen, who was appointed to the High Court in 2012 and currently the eighth most senior justice.

He also said that as head of the Tribunal, the Chief Justice is a “negotiator” tasked with “find(ing) the middle ground.”