Presidential pressure must certainly be piling up on the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) to amend its rule on disqualifying nominees and candidates for positions in the Supreme Court (SC) and include Noynoy’s favorite bet for the chief justice position, Leila de Lima in the shortlist, despite the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) having categorically stated that the disbarment cases against her will be pursued.
Noynoy’s pressure on the JBC has become much too evident, considering the fact that the JBC has again postponed its voting for the selection of the candidates scheduled yesterday. His loyal ally, Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., has already prepared an amendment to change  the JBC rule on disqualification, for De Lima’s benefit.
The body claimed that, with the re-entry of the two members of Congress in the JBC, more time is needed for them to review and assess the qualifications of the nominees to be included in the shortlist which would be submitted to the President.
Sen. Francis Escudero said the JBC has yet to vote on whether  De Lima should be disqualified after the IBP denied her appeal to dismiss the disbarment case against her.
But why does the JBC have to meet again to deliberate on whether to qualify or disqualify De Lima  from the shortlist, since under the rules of the JBC, specifically Rule 4, Section 5, it states that those disqualified from being nominated or appointed to any judicial, Ombudsman or deputy Ombudsman position include  those with pending criminal or regular administrative cases;  those with pending criminal cases in foreign courts or tribunals; and those who have been convicted in any criminal case or in an administrative case where the penalty imposed is at least a fine of more than P10,000 unless he has been granted judicial clemency.
With the IBP having upheld that a full dress probe will be done on the disbarment cases against De Lima, how much clearer a message is this in that De Lima does have a pending administrative case, as well as criminal cases before the Ombudsman?
If the JBC ignores the IBP’s denial of De Lima’s appeal to have her disbarment cases dismissed, the message then from the JBC is that it does not respect decisions made by a body of lawyers, which would be no different from the members of the JBC, who are all lawyers, disrespecting and  defying the high court, given the fact that it was the SC that had already virtually stated that De Lima’s case should be pursued.
Obviously, the main reason there is again a deferment of the JBC voting and deliberation of De Lima’s case has a lot to do with the continued intense lobbying of Noynoy to get De Lima on the shortlist, after which, there will no longer exist the problem of Noynoy appointing De Lima as his CJ of the SC.
It shouldn’t be too difficult for Noynoy to make the JBC bend to his whims, since a huge majority of the JBC members are all appointees and allies. The JBC can always amend its rules to give way to presidential preferences.
And to be sure, neither Noynoy nor the the constitutional body that is the JBC really cares if yet another so-called democratic institution is prostituted and placed under presidential control.
But what the Noynoy lobbying and the JBC’s stand — if a volte face on its part does occur to facilitate the entry of De Lima in the shortlist — prove to the public is that Noynoy merely wanted Chief Justice Renato Corona out of the high seat in the high court because Noynoy wants a CJ he can completely control and who will continue to be his “alter-ego” in the high court, where not only would his new CJ leak to him advance information on how the high court will be voting on a petition that he wants decided in his favor, after which, another round of lobbying will be made.
There is a phrase for this. It’s called the presidential corruption of the Judiciary, specifically of the Supreme Court.
“Kung walang lobbying sa Palasyo, walang corrupt sa Hudikatura,” is a more credible slogan than Noynoy’s “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap.”