The glare of light on the new CJ

Published by the Visayan Daily Star Publications, Inc.

NINFA R. LEONARDIA Editor-in-Chief & President

CARLA P. GOMEZ Editor CHERYL CRUZ Desk Editor PATRICK PANGILINAN Busines Editor NIDA A. BUENAFE Sports Editor RENE GENOVE Bureau Chief, Dumaguete MAJA P. DELY Advertising Coordinator

CARLOS ANTONIO L. LEONARDIA Administrative Officer

The Greeks have a story about a philosopher named Diogenes who lived sometime in 323 B.C. It said this man was seen wandering around the town square, carrying a lamp. When he was asked why he had to carry a lighted lamp when the sun was so bright, he answered, “I am looking for an honest man.”

The members of the Judicial and Bar Council, which is tasked with the responsibility of choosing and nominating the person who will head the country’s Supreme Court, after the Chief Justice anointed by the former president in the dark of midnight, must now be feeling the need to carry a lamp at midday, in the search for the man or woman who will replace the disgraced one who was removed from the office after being found guilty of violating the Constitution, and being unfit for the exalted position to which he has been named by an outgoing president, herself suspected of having her own agenda in installing him in that office.

The JBC is now in the thick of selection that covers so many possible qualifiers. The choices will include those who are now serving as associate justice, as well as others outside the high court. While the JBC will choose and recommend, however, it will be the President who will appoint their nominee, if he agrees with their choice.

The JBC now has a more challenging job in view of what had happened to the last one the group had recommended, who was suspected to be the President’s own choice then. In picking the one they will present to the President this time, they must be very, very sure that their nominee could stand the glare of the lamp which will poke into his very nature, character, background and probably, even his family.

They cannot afford to go wrong in their choice, nor does the President. Our experience with the last one who was found wanting in so many aspects, was a very trying and costly one we cannot afford to go through again.*