A PEACE advocate and human-rights lawyer, and a family lawyer are among the 28 prominent figures in the legal profession vying for the lone vacancy in the Supreme Court (SC).

Court Administrator and Spokesman Jose Midas Marquez identified the two candidates as incumbent Commissioner of the Commission on Elections (Comelec) Rene Sarmiento and lawyer Ma. Carolina “Katrina” Legarda.

Marquez said among the 28 who were either nominated or applied for the SC post, the two are considered outsiders because they are not holding any position in the Judiciary at present.

“They are considered outsiders and have to go through the public interview being first-time applicants,” he said.

Marquez said old applicants who have already been interviewed within the period of vacancy would no longer be subjected to a public interview.

“The interview will be only for those first-time aspirants or those who’ve been interviewed a long time ago,” he said.

Marquez said the names of the 28 candidates will be published soon in order to solicit comments from the public.

Based on the records, Sarmiento graduated magna cum laude from San Beda College and obtained his Bachelor of Laws degree from the University of the Philippines in 1978.

Before he was appointed as Comelec commissioner on April 7, 2006, Sarmiento served as one of the commissioners of the 1986 Constitutional Commission that drafted the 1987 Constitution.

In 1987 he was appointed consultant to the presidential committee on human rights and became a member of the Presidential Human Rights Committee from 1991 to 1994.

For almost 10 years, Sarmiento worked as vice chairman of the government peace panel for the Communist Party of the Philippines-New People’s Army-National Democratic Front.

He then became deputy presidential adviser on the peace process from 2005 to 2006 and later, OIC presidential adviser on the peace process.

Meanwhile, Legarda is known in the legal circle as a defender of abused women and children.

Among the famous cases she handled were the libel case filed against the late Max Soliven and Luis Beltran by the late President Aquino; the suit filed by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) against business tycoon Eduardo Cojuangco Jr., Maria Lobregat and several others; the citizenship case of former Cebu governor Lito Osmeña; and the Manila Film Festival Scam case.

She also acted as lead counsel in the pro bono case filed by an 11-year-old girl against then-Zamboanga del Norte Rep. Romeo Jalosjos for statutory rape.

Legarda, together with lawyers Lourdes Cruz Matters and Minerva Ambrosio, successfully prosecuted the case which led to Jalosjos’s conviction.

The lady lawyer’s “Battered Women Syndrome” defense also led to the acquittal of a woman who had been sentenced to death for killing her husband. The Court has since then accepted as valid legal defense the so-called battered women syndrome. Written by Joel R. San Juan / Reporter  (Courtesy of Business Mirror)