PEACE NEGOTIATOR, 6 OTHERS LEAD NOMINEES TO SC

CHIEF peace negotiator Marvic Leonen, former Energy Secretary Raphael Lotilla, and De La Salle Law school dean Jose Manuel Diokno head a list of seven nominees to the Supreme Court.

Sen. Chiz Escudero, a member of the Judicial and Bar Council, said the short list of possible appointees to the Supreme Court, will be submitted to President Benigno S. Aquino III today (Wednesday Nov. 7).

The President has until Nov. 22 to make the appointment.

Escudero said in his Twitter account that the JBC had narrowed the list down to Leonen, Lotilla, Diokno, Court of Appeals Presiding Justice Andres Reyes and Associate Justices Noel Tijam, Jose Reyes, Jr. and Rosmari Carandang.

President Aquino will choose the new Supreme Court justice from the JBC shortlist. A seat in the 15-man high tribunal was left vacant when Maria Lourdes Sereno was appointed as chief justice last August.

The shortlist was trimmed from 15 applicants. "All 15 applicants were equally qualified. We sent seven names because only seven out of the 15 got a vote of at least five (majority of JBC)," Escudero tweeted.

Leonen, Lotilla, Andres Reyes, and Carandang got seven votes each while the three others got five votes each.

Those who did not make the shortlist were CA Associate Justices Ramon Bato Jr., Magdangal De Leon and Isaias Dicdican, Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Ma. Cristina Cornejo, former judge Adoracion Cruz-Avisado, former Ateneo Law Dean Cesar Villanueva, University of Perpetual Help System law dean Jose-Santos Bisquera, and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairperson Teresita Herbosa.