Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez is said to have announced that the rules required all candidates for the post to undergo “scientific” psychological tests to ensure they were fit for the job.

“As a nominee I have no objections,” Santiago said. “I just hope that this constructive suggestion will be made applicable to all officials in government."

She said she was willing to take all tests, including posing naked, to show she was qualified for the post and had nothing to hide.

“You mean I have to be naked before I can be chief justice of the Supreme Court? I’m willing to do that, too. There is nothing artificial in my body. I want to place it on record."

Apparently coming to the defense his administration colleague, Senate Majority Leader Francis Pangilinan yesterday practically refuted what Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales had earlier said, saying that candidates for the position of Supreme Court (SC) chief justice are not mandated to take psychological tests as a pre-qualification to run for the top post of the high tribunal.

Pangilinan, who just like Gonzalez is a member of the seven-man Judicial Bar Council (JBC), said based on the processes of the JBC, psychological examinations are only required on those seeking positions in the first and second level courts such as the Municipal Trial Court and the Regional Trial Court, levels where medical certification and background investigation are being certified by the National Bureau of Investigation.

“With the CA (Court of Appeals), Sandiganbayan and the SC, or the Ombudsman, it (psychological test) is no longer mandatory because at that point, the policy or the rationale behind it, is that by the time you would have had a track record of performance if you are in the judiciary or you are in private practice, after 15 years of practice, you are known in the legal circles as to your fitness. So in that case, the psycho exam is no longer mandatory for the CA, Sandiganbayan or the SC, he said.

Pangilinan added that there are other means of being able to determine the fitness of a candidate, nominee or potential  nominee aside from the psychological examination.

He said such proposals as raised by Gonzalez would have to be discussed by the JBC.

He named the other nominees as Senior Associate Justice Reynato Puno and Associate Justices Antonio Carpio, Leonardo Quisumbing, Angelina Sandoval-Gutierrez and Consuelo Ynares-Santiago, whom he said are the most senior among the present set of magistrates of the SC.

Under the JBC’s rules, present SC justices are automatically nominated for the position of chief justice.