Leonen: No plan to apply for chief justice position

MANILA — Associate Justice Marvic Leonen does not have any plan to make a bid to become a chief justice.

Speaking to ANC's Headstart on Thursday, Leonen said that he does not aspire to be the head of judiciary as it “requires some sort of a capacity or an attitude that right now I cannot imagine myself doing.”

He said that a good chief justice, in his point of view, “is the number of times that she or he gets a unanimous opinion, especially in controversial cases.”

The justice, in a rare live interview, said that as head of the tribunal, the chief justice is tasked to be a “negotiator” to “find the middle ground.”

“You have to have gravitas to be able to bring people to listen to each other and then, later on, come out with the decision,” Leonen said. The justice said that right now, he is “more concerned about convincing people about the standpoint that I am presenting.”

A week after the SC ruling on the quo warranto petition reached finality, the Judicial and Bar Council, on June 25, announced the opening of the application for the chief justice post. The deadline for filing and completing the requirements is on July 26.

The landmark ruling that granted the government's legal challenge to Maria Lourdes Sereno's appointment as chief justice in 2012, resulted in Sereno's ouster.

Five of the most senior justices in the SC receive automatic nomination for the post. They, however, need to submit their written acceptance of the nomination before they are considered a candidate to the chief justice post. The five are Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio, Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco Jr., Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta and Lucas Bersamin.