MANILA (UPDATE) - The Supreme Court (SC) on Tuesday recommended President Rodrigo Duterte's first appointee to the high court for the Ombudsman post.

Eleven justices voted that Associate Justice Samuel Martires be endorsed to the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC), the body tasked to screen applicants for the post, as replacement of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales who is set to retire next week.

The JBC will vote on July 20 for the shortlist of candidates to be submitted to President Rodrigo Duterte. The council interviewed applicants for the Ombudsman post last June 20.

Only 12 justices were present in Tuesday’s en banc session; Associate Justices Estela Perlas-Bernabe and Alfredo Benjamin Caguioa are on leave. Martires did not participate in the voting.

The 69-year-old Martires served as trial court judge in Agoo, La Union prior to his appointment to the Sandiganbayan on October 15, 2005 by then-President Gloria Arroyo.

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Martires was among Sandiganbayan justices that handed down the decision approving the plea bargain deal entered into by alleged plunderer retired Major General Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman.

In 2011, Martires also wrote the Sandiganbayan decision that junked graft charges against then-Davao City Mayor Rodrigo Duterte over the demolition of a park built by his political rival.

He also voted to grant the Office of the Solicitor General’s ouster case against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Apart from Martires, two other applicants for the anti-graft office’s top post were recommended by the high court: retired Sandiganbayan Presiding Justice and now Ombudsman Special Prosecutor Edilberto Sandoval, and Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, who obtained 4 and 3 votes, respectively.

The other applicants for Ombudsman are Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Efren Dela Cruz, Judge Carlos Espero II, and lawyers Rey Nathaniel Ifurung, Rainier Madrid, Edna Batacan, Felito Ramirez, and Rex Rico.