JBC member in hot water
The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) directed one of its members who applied for a post at the Court of Tax Appeals to explain why she should not be disqualified for her failure to disclose that she is facing administrative and disbarment charges before the Supreme Court.
The JBC ordered Milagros Fernan-Cayosa to submit her explanation three days after receiving the letter.
Cayosa is facing complaints filed by Rep. Reynaldo Umali and senatorial bet Larry Gadon for her alleged failure to fulfill her mandate in screening former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno who failed to submit to the council her complete Statements of Assets Liabilities and Networth (SALN).
Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta also filed a complaint against her on the selection process for the position of Presiding Justice of the Court of Appeals after the JBC disqualified his wife, CA Justice Fernanda Lampas-Peralta, without due process.
Cayosa’s bid to become a CTA justice was opposed by Gadon.
“There seems to be a conflict of interest, much more a sense of unprofessionalism, on the part of Maria Milagros Fernan-Cayosa to send an application letter to the JBC, of which she is a regular member, and of which the same body would deliberate on the very same application. Fernan-Cayosa should have resigned from the JBC prior to her application for the position of CTA Justice,” Gadon said.
He said Cayosa committed an irregularity as a JBC member when she accepted the incomplete SALN of Sereno when she applied for the chief justice post in 2004.
Cayosa represents the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) in the JBC. JOMAR CANLAS
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