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President Rodrigo Duterte (stock photo from MARK SCHIEFELBEIN / AP)
President Rodrigo Duterte defended Wednesday his decision to appoint Lucas Bersamin as president of the Supreme Court, while the critics accumulate there would have broken the tradition of the seniority of the judiciary.
The President stated that the initial decision of Associate Judge Antonio Carpio, before declining his candidacy for the post of Chief Magistrate, was still valid, which is why he had chosen Bersamin, whom he described as "next".
"Carpio [Diosdado] Peralta, Bersamin – Man lima ka pangalan sa he gihatag his ako [I was given five names]. I chose Bersamin, "said the president in his speech to Tubod, Lanao Del Norte.
"If Carpio, goodbye if teen na dili siya mudawat [he said he would not accept], so [I chose the] next rank, "he added.
READ: Duterte Appoints Bersamin 25th Chief Justice
Earlier, Mr Carpio had declined to run for the post of High Magistrate when it was declared vacant following the dismissal of former Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno in May.
Carpio explained that he would not want to "take advantage" of a decision he had voted against.
He served as Chief Justice twice, after the ouster of Sereno in May and the dismissal of the late Renato Corona in 2012.
Carpio is the oldest magistrate of the Supreme Court and is now 17 years old.
He was preceded by Peralta, who was appointed to the Supreme Court in January 2009.
Bersamin, 69, is the third highest judge of the Supreme Court.
He graduated from the Faculty of Law at the University of the East and was ninth in the 1973 Bar Exam.
READ: Know your next Chief Justice
Carpio strongly criticized the president's position in the disputed areas of the western Philippine Sea.
He was also a member of the Philippine group of experts that won the Philippines arbitration case against China in 2016.
In the same speech, the president also criticized Carpio for asking him to insist on China's decision on arbitration.
"What do you want me to do?" Arbitration "So, I'm going to order my military and the police to go to Palawan and shoot it It will be a massacre," said the president.
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