THE Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has opened the application and nomination for the Supreme Court (SC) associate justice post that will be vacated by Associate Justice Amy C. Lazaro-Javier, who is set to compulsorily retire on November 16, 2026.
Lazaro’s replacement will become the second appointee of President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. in the SC.
In June 2025, Associate Justice Raul Villanueva SC became Marcos Jr.’s first appointee in the SC, which is still dominated by magistrates who were appointed during the incumbency of former President Rodrigo Duterte.
The JBC said interested applicants must submit their applications online through the JBC Online Registration Application System (JBC O.R.A.S.) via the Philippine Judiciary Platform.
It sets the deadline for filing of online applications at 4:30 p.m. on October 1, 2026.
The JBC is a constitutional body that accepts, screens and nominates appointments to the judiciary, Office of the Ombudsman and the Legal Education Board.
The Constitution also mandates the JBC to and submit to the Office of the President a shortlist of nominees for appointment to fill in vacancies in the judiciary.
The JBC said applicants who have been found to have willfully made false statements, misrepresentations, or concealments of any information required under the 2020 Revised JBC Rules, will be disqualified from being nominated by the council or may be subject to perjury.