The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) has formally opened the application and nomination process for a pending seat on the Supreme Court, as Associate Justice Amy Lazaro-Javier reaches the mandatory retirement age on November 16.
Interested applicants and nominating parties can review the guidelines and submission requirements on the official JBC Website or access application forms via the Philippine Judiciary Platform. The deadline for all nominations and applications is October 1, 2026.
Led ex-officio by Chief Justice Alexander Gesmundo, the JBC is a constitutionally mandated body responsible for vetting and recommending candidates for the judiciary, the Office of the Ombudsman and its deputies, and the Legal Education Board. By law, the Council must formulate a shortlist containing a minimum of three nominees for every judicial vacancy submitted to the President.
This appointment will represent President Ferdinand Marcos Jr.’s second appointment to the country’s highest tribunal, following Associate Justice Raul Villanueva’s appointment on June 10, 2025.
Lazaro-Javier joined the High Court on March 7, 2019, following over a decade as a CA associate justice from September 13, 2007, to March 6, 2019. Before her tenure on the appellate bench, she spent over two decades at the Office of the Solicitor General (1983–2007), advancing from trial attorney to assistant solicitor general.
Academically, she graduated magna cum laude from the Philippine Normal College in 1977 with a Bachelor of Science in Education, earning the Outstanding Student in Social Sciences award.
She later earned her law degree as class valedictorian and magna cum laude from the University of Santo Tomas Faculty of Civil Law in 1982, passing the Bar examinations that same year with a rating of 82.8 percent.