Will Sandiganbayan Associate Justice Gregory S. Ong make it this time?

This question propped up as the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) postponed anew the voting on the nominees for presiding justice of the anti-graft court.

According to JBC member Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor, the eight-member constitutional body should have finalized the shortlist for the next Sandiganbayan chief as early as February 1.

But Defensor said JBC members have decided to postpone the voting until their en banc meeting next week to allow the Supreme Court to resolve questions about his citizenship.

“We were told that the Supreme Court may rule on the petition questioning his citizenship soon,” Defensor said in a phone interview.

Ong, of Chinese descent, became controversial when President Arroyo appointed him as associate justice of the Supreme Court on May 16, 2007, but his appointment was subsequently withdrawn after questions arose whether he met the constitutional requirement of natural-born citizenship.

Later in July 2007, the High Court voted 13-0 to nullify Ong’s appointment. It granted the petition of two foundations that sought to block his appointment over the citizenship issue.

The SC ruled that Ong would be unable to join them on the bench “until he had proven in court that he was a natural- born Filipino citizen and corrected the records of his birth and citizenship.” It nevertheless allowed him to keep his seat on the anti-graft court.

In November 2007, the Pasig City Regional Trial Court declared him a natural-born Filipino citizen. This ruling was affirmed by the Court of Appeals in September last year.

However, the SC has yet to resolve a pleading filed by Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio regarding Ong’s citizenship.