[] Seniority rule may be modified or discarded, as presidents did in past selections -- and President BBM may also do this time, his first in filling the chief justice post.
What’s up, what’s next
The Judicial and Bar Council has set Tuesday, Oct. 27, 2026 as deadline for public opposition, in sworn complaints, against anyone of those who applied for and were screened by JBC for the position of Supreme Court chief justice.
The Council reportedly will then submit a shortlist of “at least three names” from which President Bongbong Marcos will choose the high court’s chief magistrate.
Not necessarily the most senior
Besides other magistrates – including Cebu’s Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice Geraldine Faith Econg -- five senior justices of the Supreme Court have applied for the position of chief justice, which will become vacant upon the mandatory retirement of CJ Alexander Gesmundo this Nov. 6, 2026.
The most senior of the five high court associate justices is AJ Marvic M.V.F. Leonen, who was appointed Nov. 21, 2012 and the least senior is AJ Jose Midas P. Marquez, appointed Nov. 16, 2021.
Between the two dates of appointment were three others: Ajs Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa, 2016; Rodil Zalameda, 2019; and Japar Dimaampao, 2021.
Anyone of the five AJs may be appointed by President Bongbong Marcos, not necessarily AJ Leonen, the most senior. Or none of them.
The next SC chief could be anyone in the shortlist the Judicial and Bar Council submits to the President. Not necessarily the most senior associate justice of the Supreme Court or any other magistrate in the JBC short list.
No applicant may be bumped by the “most senior” rule. Every aspirant though has to get into the JBC shortlist to become a contender.
Leonen concedes: “not our prerogative”
AJ Leonen, the most senior among the current applicants, acknowledged as early as Sept. 12, 2026, that he was ready “but it’s not our choice.” All associate justices who have served as division heads, he said, are ready to take on the top post.
He himself had served as acting CJ several times but, he said, he was also bypassed three times in previous selections.
Cebu’s 2 SC chiefs were most senior then
Marcelo B. Fernan of Bogo, Cebu was appointed Supreme Court associate justice in April 1986. He later succeeded AJ Pedro L. Yap as the most senior associate justice. On July 1, 1988, then president Corazon Aquino elevated Fernan as chief justice.
RELATED: Pedro Yap, who briefly served as SC chief justice, was educated and taught in Cebu schools but was a native of San Isidro, Leyte. “Seares: Cebu produced two Supreme Court chief justices. Did it have a third?” The Short of It, Dec. 27, 2024.
Hilario G. Davide Jr. was appointed associate justice in January 1991 and held the position of most senior justice when he was named chief justice on Nov. 30, 1988 by then president Joseph Estrada.
The chief justices from Cebu (#18 and #20 respectively) were both the most senior AJs when they rose to the SC’s top seat and thus fitted snugly into what was then the “traditional and revered” rule but has not been explicitly written.
Presidents dumped ‘most senior’ rule
[] Ferdinand Marcos Sr. bypassed, twice, Claudio Teehankee and appointed Felix Makasiar (1985) and later Ramon Aquino, both of whom were junior to Teehanke. Teehankee was a “vocal critic” of martial law. He was later appointed CJ by Cory Aquino in 1986.
[] Gloria Arroyo in 2005 bypassed Reynato Puno and appointed Artemio Panganiban when Jun Davide retired in 2005. In 2007, she appointed Puno chief justice when Panganiban retired.
Arroyo bypassed Antonio Carpio and appointed Renato Corona, an act that swirled in controversy because it was made during the election ban in May 2010.
[] Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III in 2012, after CJ Corona was impeached, bypassed Antonio Carpio, along with other senior AJs and appointed Maria Lourdes Sereno, the most junior AJ at the time.
[] Rodrigo Duterte bypassed Antonio Carpio – Carpio’s third time being skipped over – and appointed in 2018 Teresita Leonardo de Castro. Carpio, several times during his 18-year tenure as associate justice, had “intermittently” served (for a total of eight months) as acting chief justice, although never as permanent CJ until he retired in October 2019.
Duterte bypassed AJ Estela Perlas-Bernabe and appointed Alexander Gesmundo. Perlas-Bernabe retired in 2022, without becoming CJ.
Bongbong not bound by Constitution…
… or any law (which would then be unconstitutional) that restricts a President in appointing chief justice who is the most senior among the
nominees.
The “most senior rule” is considered “a historical tradition” and an “institutional courtesy.” But not binding or obligatory to a president who hates the guts of a Teehankee (FM Sr. did and bypassed him twice) or a Carpio (two presidents did, although the third time he was skipped over, he helped bring it on himself, when he refused to benefit from the would-be predecessor’s exit).
Like his predecessors, President BBM will have near-absolute discretion in choosing CJ Gesmundo’s replacement this November. The sole restraint, which is procedural: The president must choose the appointee from the shortlist of nominees submitted by the Judicial and Bar Council.