JBC opens application, recommendation to post of SC associate justice
The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) opened the application or nomination to the post of Supreme Court (SC) associate justice with the compulsory retirement on November 16 of Associate Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier.
In a published announcement, the JBC said that the details for application or nomination can be viewed at its official website – www.jbc.judiciary.gov.ph.
Application or nomination will be accepted until Oct. 1, 2026.
The JBC is a constitutional office that accepts, screens, and nominates appointments in the judiciary, the Office of the Ombudsman and its deputies, and members of the Legal Education Board.
It is headed by Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo as ex-officio chairperson.
The JBC is mandated to submit at least three nominees to a vacant post.
Whoever is appointed, he or she would be President Marcos’ second appointee to the SC. The President’s first appointee is SC Associate Justice Raul B. Villanueva who was appointed on June 10, 2025.
Associate Justice Lazaro-Javier was appointed to the SC on March 7, 2019 after serving the Court of Appeals (CA) as associate justice from Sept. 13, 2007 to March 6, 2019.
Before her CA stint, she was at the Office of the Solicitor General from 1983 to 2007 as trial attorney, solicitor, and finally as assistant solicitor general.
She graduated magna cum laude from the Philippine Normal College in 1977 with the degree of Bachelor of Science in Education and received the award of Outstanding Student in Social Sciences in the same year.
She was class valedictorian, magna cum laude, of the University of Santo Tomas (UST) Faculty of Civil Law in 1982 and passed the Bar Examination given in the same year with the grade of 82.8 per cent.
Justice Lazaro-Javier was born in Manila on Nov. 16, 1956.
She is married to Atty. Rolando K. Javier of Cadiz, Negros Occidental with whom she has three children -- Robert Voltaire (a computer engineer who is married to Desiree Santos), Paula Sigma (a medical doctor), and Bertha Kamille Bremmers (a businesswoman and married to Executive Sous Chef Tijn Bremmers with a son Andres Rolando).