MANILA - The Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP), through its Board of Governors, has endorsed the automatic nomination of Acting Chief Justice Antonio Carpio as top magistrate.

The IBP, the country's only compulsory organization of lawyers, said it favored the return to the long-standing tradition of seniority in choosing the next chief magistrate, which was observed prior to the appointment of Sereno in August 2012.

She was then only the third youngest Associate Justice of the high court.

“We are faced with the reality that the Supreme Court itself has set into motion the appointment of Chief Justice vice Ma. Lourdes P. A. Sereno. We thus support the return to, and the recognition of the wisdom, of the long-standing tradition of seniority in the appointment to the highest office of the judiciary, the Supreme Court Chief Justice,” IBP national president Elijah Fajardo said in a statement.

“Associate Justice Antonio Carpio is the most senior of all the incumbent justices in the Supreme Court and is most qualified to lead and manage the Supreme Court and the entire Philippine judiciary,” he added.

The IBP’s action came even as Carpio had said he would decline any nomination for the top judicial post because he was among the minority of 6 who voted against Sereno’s removal via quo warranto proceedings.

• Carpio to decline chief justice nomination

Carpio voted against the ouster of Maria Lourdes Sereno as chief justice, arguing that impeachment was the only process to remove a Supreme Court official.

He said, however, that Sereno committed culpable violation of the Constitution, an impeachable offense, when she repeatedly failed to submit 10 statements of assets, liabilities and net worth during her application as chief justice.

• Despite dissent, Carpio says Sereno guilty of impeachable offense

Carpio, along with the four most senior justices of the high court namely, Associate Justices Presbitero Velasco, Jr., Teresita Leonardo-De Castro, Diosdado Peralta, and Lucas Bersamin, have been automatically nominated by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), the constitutional body mandated to screen applicants for judicial posts.

The nominations are subject to their individual formal acceptance up to July 26, the deadline set by the council for all applications, nominations, as well as for the submission of all documentary requirements.

Under the Constitution, President Rodrigo Duterte has 90 days to appoint the next Chief Justice. On June 19, the high court voted with finality Sereno’s ouster.