MANILA, Philippines – The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has extended until September 2 the deadline for application and nomination of the next Chief Justice of Supreme Court, a panel member announced on Thursday.

According to Justice Secretary Menardo Guevarra, the council decided to extend the deadline to invite more applicants to the position.

The application for the next chief justice initially closed on August 20.

Only four Supreme Court justices have filed their application and acceptance of nomination, namely, Associate Justices Diosdado Peralta, Estela Perlas-Bernabe, Andres Reyes Jr and Jose Reyes Jr.

Perlas-Bernabe and Peralta were among the five SC senior associate justices who were automatically nominated for the post. The other three magistrates are Senior Associate Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Marvic Leonen and Benjamin Caguiao who all rejected their automatic nominations.

Carpio earlier said he declined his nomination as he is set to retire in October. Leonen and Caguiao, however, did not cite their reasons.

The chief justice position will be vacated when CJ Lucas Bersamin will reach the mandatory retirement age of 70 on October 18.

Bersamin was appointed by President Rodrigo Duterte as chief justice on November 28, 2018.

Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio said foreign ships passing through Philippine waters, including Chinese vessels, should not turn off their trackers.

Carpio has agreed with the previous statement of Department of Defense Secretary Delfin Lorenzana that Chinese vessels should not turn off their automatic identification system (AID).

Carpio also said that the Philippines should not allow these kinds of actions from China.

“It’s very stealthy if you do that and I agree with Secretary Lorenzana that should be the rule worldwide. You should not turn off your AIS if you’re passing through,” he said.

The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Secretary Teddy Locsin Jr. has previously announced that the Philippines already filed a diplomatic protest due to the 113 Chinese fishing vessels in Pagasa island from July 24 to 25 without the permission from the government.—AAC (with reports from Mai Bermudez)

MANILA, Philippines – The net satisfaction ratings of Vice President Leni Robredo and former House Speaker Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo went down in the second quarter of 2019, a survey conducted by the Social Weather Stations (SWS) revealed Tuesday (July 23).

The survey, conducted from June 22 to 26, showed that 57 percent of the 1,200 respondents were satisfied with Robredo’s performance while 29 percent were dissatisfied.

Robredo got a net score of +28 or “moderate” from +42 or “good” in March after a drop in all areas except Metro Manila, the pollster said.

“Compared to March 2019, the June 2019 survey found double-digit declines in Vice-Pres. Robredo’s net satisfaction rating in all basic socio-demographics, except for the single-digit changes among class E (down from +50 to +42), the 18 to 24-year olds (up slightly from +29 to +30), and college graduates (up from +6 to +13),” the SWS noted.

Arroyo, meanwhile, received a -20 or “poor” net rating after 29 percent said they were satisfied and 49 percent were dissatisfied with the former president’s performance towards the end of her term as House speaker.

Arroyo’s score is three points down from her previous score of -17.

“The 3-point decline in the overall net satisfaction rating of Speaker Macapagal-Arroyo was due to decreases of 7 points in Balance Luzon and 4 points in Metro Manila, combined with increases of 3 points in the Visayas and 1 point in Mindanao,” the pollster said.

Arroyo’s net satisfaction stayed poor in Balance Luzon and Mindanao, bad in Metro Manila while it rose from poor to neutral in the Visayas.

On the other hand, Senate President Vicente Sotto III and Supreme Court Chief Justice Lucas Bersamin maintained their “very good” and “moderate” ratings, getting +60 and +13, respectively.

The SWS survey showed that 72 percent were satisfied and 13 percent were dissatisfied with Sotto’s performance; while 37 percent of the respondents said they were satisfied with Bersamin’s work and 24 percent were not.

The survey also found that the public’s perception of the Senate stayed “very good” at +63, while the House of Representatives and the Supreme Court received record-highs “good” at +48 and “very good” at +54, respectively.

The SWS said its June 2019 survey has a sampling error margins of ±3% for national percentages, and ±6% each for Metro Manila, Balance Luzon, the Visayas, and Mindanao.