MANILA, Philippines?An official of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines has sought to delay the Supreme Court's ruling on whether President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo can appoint the next chief justice during the elections ban.

Lawyer Peter Irving Corvera, president of the IBP chapter in Pasay, Parañaque, Las Piñas and Muntinlupa, asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a petition filed earlier that asked the high court to make a ruling.

According to Corvera, the Judicial and Bar Council has not yet come up with a shortlist of nominees to be submitted to Malacañang and therefore, no justiciable controversy exists as of this point.

In his motion to intervene in the petition earlier filed by lawyer Arturo De Castro, Corvera also argued that the President could not make an appointment until Puno?s retirement on May 17.

The Constitution bans further appointments starting March 11 or two months from the May 10, 2010 presidential and national elections and until the end of President Macapagal-Arroyo?s term on June 30, 2010.

But in his petition, De Castro claimed that the appointments ban did not cover appointments in the judiciary.

Corvera, on the other hand, insisted that ?the constitutional ban on appointments applies to all kinds of appointments including those in the judiciary.?