JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra said over the weekend that President Rodrigo Duterte can still fill the vacancy left by the retirement of Supreme Court associate justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe or leave the appointment to president-in-waiting Ferdinand “Bongbong” Marcos Jr. as his first appointee to the high tribunal.

” Upon the retirement of senior associate justice Estela Perlas-Bernabe, PRRD (Duterte) has 90 days within which to fill the vacancy; that’s well beyond the end of his term on June 30, 2022.”

” So PRRD may still exercise his prerogative to appoint the next associate justice (AJ) before June 30, or leave it to the incoming president to make the appointment after June 30. I am not privy, however, to any plan or agreement regarding the appointment of the next AJ of the Supreme Court, ” Guevarra said.

Guevarra is an ex-officio member of the Judicial and Bar Council.

Perlas-Bernabe has compulsory retired last Saturday, May 14, after reaching the mandatory retirement age of 70.

Bernabe was appointed SC magistrate in 2011 by the late president Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III.

The JBC is constitutionally mandated to screen applicants for vacant posts in the judiciary and the Offices of the Ombudsman and Deputy Ombudsman. By HECTOR LAWAS

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Hector Lawas