President Aquino names OP undersecretary to JBC as De Lima’s replacement

Press Release
July 20, 2012

MANILA  –  President Benigno S. Aquino III has designated Undersecretary Michael Frederick L. Musngi of the Office of the President to replace Justice Secretary Leila De Lima as the Executive Department’s representative in the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC).

In his letter to the JBC dated July 19, 2012, President Aquino said: “I hereby designate Atty. Michael Frederick L. Musngi, Undersecretary of the Office of Special Concerns, Office of the President, as the representative of the Executive Branch, vice Secretary Leila M. De Lima, for the sole purpose of participating in the deliberations of the Judicial and Bar Council for the selection of nominees for the position of Chief Justice.”

De Lima has inhibited herself as ex-officio member of the JBC from the selection process after she accepted the nomination for the post of Chief Justice.

The JBC has acceded to the request of Executive Secretary Paquito N. Ochoa Jr. in behalf of the President to assign a substitute for De Lima to ensure that the three branches of government are equally represented in the deliberation of the council.

Following an en banc meeting, the council wrote to the Executive Secretary on July 17, 2012, that it had “agreed to accept the designation of a representative of the Executive Department in the JBC whose rank is not lower than Undersecretary.”

Musngi, who heads the Office of Special Concerns under the Office of the Executive Secretary, is a graduate of the Ateneo School of Law, and has been in government service since 2002, having worked at the Government Service Insurance System, the Department of Agriculture, the Department of Agrarian Reform and the Subic Bay Metropolitan Authority.