It is becoming increasingly apparent that the Palace gameplan for the reclaiming of the Supreme Court (SC) would have the person who coined the campaign as the one taking over its helm after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima accepted the nomination for the vacant Supreme Court chief justice post yesterday supposedly on the behest of President Aquino.
Aquino convinced De Lima at a meeting to accept being among the nominees in the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) shortlist from which Aquino will pick the next chief justice, according to a source in the Palace.
De Lima said she accepted the nomination after “a deeper reflection and further consultations with my family and close confidants, and amidst my initial hesitance and apprehensions.”
“I now feel that I will be up to the challenge and will now take on the challenge,” she added.
It was De Lima who said last December when the impeachment trial that ousted former Chief Justice Renato Corona was just starting that Aquino was “reclaiming the court for the people.”

“The Supreme Court belongs to the people,” De Lima said in a statement three days after Aquino’s allies in Congress moved to impeach Chief Justice Renato Corona.
“And when the Arroyo justices start thinking that in protecting (former President Gloria Macapagal) Arroyo, they are shorn of any accountability, not even by impeachment, then it is time the people, through their representatives in Congress, impeach them. It is time the President and Congress reclaim the Court for the people,” she added.
Deputy presidential spokesman Abigail Valte divulged Aquino’s one and only meeting with De Lima.
De Lima, however, has yet to clear herself on the disbarment case filed against her by lawyer Agustin Sundiam for making disparaging remarks against Corona.
It was for the same reason that Sen. Panfilo Lacson saw the justice secretary as being disqualified from being nominated to the chief justice post due to the pending disbarment case.
The disbarment case against De Lima was filed at the Supreme Court by Sundiam against de Lima for calling then Chief Justice Corona “a lawless tyrant” before a national television audience.
The case was referred to the Integrated Bar of the Philippines for validation and recommendation to the high tribunal.
Despite restrictions disqualifying her from being nominated as the next chief magistrate, de Lima appears to be the only SC nominee with whom the President talked.
In a radio press briefing aired over government station DZRB, deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said President Aquino met de Lima two days before the justice chief announced her acceptance ofthe nomination as chief justice.
Pressed for details, Valte said the President actually met de Lima before the Cabinet meeting Friday afternoon. She however declined to elaborate on the details of the meeting claiming limited knowledge.
“What I know is Secretary De Lima met with the President along with Secretaries Edwin Lacierda, Florencio Abad and Jesse Robredo Friday morning before the Cabinet meeting for the presentation of the proposed 2013 budget,” said the same Palace official who hinted on the President wanting to see de Lima and another presidential appointee Revenue Commissioner Kim Jacinto Henares, who was also nominated to become the high tribunal’s new chief magistrate.
“I don’t know if the meeting was on Department of Justice matters, I don’t have information if she was able to meet with the President one-on-one on the matter of her nomination,” she added.
De Lima, who had an active part as prosecution witness in a Senate impeachment case against former Chief Justice Corona, has accepted her nomination for the Chief Justice post left vacant by the same person being tried in the case where she testified.
The Senate impeachment court found Corona guilty by a vote of 20-3 last May 29.
De Lima was nominated by the Volunteers Against Crime and Corruption, the Zambales Chapter of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines and Civil Service Commission Assistant Commissioner Rogelio Limare.
Aquino earlier expressed preference for De Lima to remain at the DoJ, even as the Malacanang chief executive cited her for being an effective DOJ chief.
Aside from the justice secretary, there are also nominees sitting as member of the Judicial Bar Council, which is mandated to administer the nomination, acceptance, screening and preparing the short-list from where President Aquino would be made to choose one to become the next SC chief magistrate.
Likewise nominated to the top SC post are Aquino’s appointees — Solictor General Francis Jardeleza and Associate Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.