THE REAPPOINTMENT of an Artlets alumnus to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) remains pending after Sen. Imee Marcos sought to defer his confirmation over questions about his financial disclosures.
During a Commission on Appointments (CA) hearing on Friday, Sept. 25, Marcos asked JBC member and UST law professor Nesauro Firme to submit additional documents and explain what she described as discrepancies between his 2023 and 2024 Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN).
“With all due respect to the majority and of course our chair and the nominee, Atty. Firme, I am compelled, given the many questions about the financial disclosures and the discrepancies between the SALNs of 2023 and 2024, to defer pending the submission of said documents and an adequate explanation, the confirmation of Atty. Firme,” Marcos said.
Firme was first appointed as the JBC’s professor of law representative in 2022 and was reappointed by President Ferdinand Marcos, Jr. on July 9 this year. His confirmation remains pending before the CA.
The JBC screens candidates for judicial vacancies and recommends nominees to the president. The president chooses judges and justices from the council’s shortlist, while appointments of the JBC’s four regular members require CA’s approval.
The council consists of the chief justice, the secretary of justice, a representative of Congress and four regular members: a representative of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines, a professor of law, a retired Supreme Court justice and a representative of the private sector.
Firme earned his bachelor’s degree in legal management from the UST Faculty of Arts and Letters in 1999 and his law degree from the UST Faculty of Civil Law in 2003, where he also teaches. He is also a faculty member at the Polytechnic University of the Philippines and Jose Rizal University College of Law.
He held key government posts, including chairman of the Mandaluyong City People’s Law Enforcement Board in 2017 and legal specialist at the Department of Health’s Philippine Institute of Traditional and Alternative Health Care in 2018.
Firme also served as executive assistant and consultant to then Metropolitan Manila Development Authority chairman Benjamin Abalos Jr. from January 2021 to February 2022. F
