THE Judicial and Bar Council has submitted to Malacanang a short list of nominees for the position of Special Prosecutor of the Office of the Ombudsman to take the place of Edilberto Sandoval.
The shortlist was submitted last September 24.
“The Judicial and Bar Council has the honor to submit the following nominations for the position of Special Prosecutor (vice Honorable Edilberto G. Sandoval) in alphabetical order, per the JBC en banc deliberation on even date, namely, Car-dino, Cathy Diaz, Castillo, Mariflor Punzalan, and Valera-Chua, Karla Regina Dacanay,” the one-page JBC shortlist said.
The JBC is the body tasked by the Constitution to screen and vet nominees to the Judiciary.
It is headed by Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo in an ex-oficio capacity, with Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla, Senator Aquilino “Koko” Pimentel III, Jose Catral Mendoza, Nesauro Firme, Erlinda Pinera Uy, and Jose Mejia as ex-oficio members.
Sandoval was appointed to the post in 2017 after an 11-year stint as associate justice of the Sandiganbayan.
The position of special prosecutor has a fixed term of seven years.
A special prosecutor has a say on who to recommend as state a witness and can also enter into plea bargaining agree-ments.
In a related development, the JBC yesterday said it has completed the public panel interviews of 40 out of 106 appli-cants for Associate Justice of the Court of Appeals and Sandiganbayan.
“This year alone, the JBC processed a total of 14,750 applications, interviewed 649 aspirants and nominated 1,748 ap-plicants for 234 positions in various judgeship positions in the lower courts, Appellate Courts, Legal Education Board and Office of the Ombudsman,” the JBC said.
