JUSTICE Secretary Menardo Guevarra was nominated anew by retired Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Raoul Victorino for possible replacement of Supreme Court Associate Justice Jose Reyes, who is about to retire on September 18.
It can be recalled that Victorino first nominated Guevarra to the SC last November for the vacant post that was created following the appointment of then-Associate Justice Diosdado Peralta as Chief Justice last October 23.
Guevarra, however, declined the nomination saying that he was till “very much in love” with the DOJ and there were still a lot of things needed to be done before he could set sights on a post in the SC.
“This time, I believe, is that he will meet his true love to the other side part of Padre Faura, Manila. May his love for justice move the Secretary of Justice to the glorious and historic halls of the Supreme Court,” Victorino said in his nomination letter sent to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).
The JBC last May 23 opened the applications of candidates for the post to be vacated by Justice Reyes.
Victorino has described Guevarra as “a man of justice.”
“In my decades of public service until today, I have known the incumbent DOJ Secretary Guevarra as a dedicated public servant with an unblemished record,” Victorino told the JBC.
“I have known Secretary Guevarra to be a person of proven competence, integrity, probity and independence and his sense of patriotism through his socio-civic engagements. I believe that he possesses the necessary credentials, professional experience and the motivation to discharge the duties as an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court,” he added.
Prior to his appointment as justice secretary, Guevarra served as an Office of the President (OP) Oversight Representative of the Executive Secretary in several National Economic and Development Authority Cabinet-level committee.
He was also an accredited arbitrator of the Philippine Chamber of Commerce and Industry (PCCI) and a member of the Philippine legal team in the West Philippine Sea arbitration case at the Permanent Court of Arbitration at The Hague.
Guevarra was a graduate of the Ateneo Law School and placed second in the 1985 Bar Exams.