Short answer. Essentially yes — but only after the preferred candidates are exhausted. Rule 78, Section 6 of the Rules of Court sets a strict order: the surviving spouse or next of kin first, then principal creditors, and only if no creditor is competent and willing may administration be granted to such other person as the court may select.
What the law says
If there is no such creditor competent and willing to serve, it may be granted to such other person as the court may select.
Rule 78, Section 6 — When and to whom letters of administration granted. Read the full provision →
What the law says
To the surviving husband or wife, as the case may be, or next of kin, or both, in the discretion of the court, or to such person as such surviving husband or wife, or next of kin, requests to have appointed, if competent and willing to serve
Rule 78, Section 6 — When and to whom letters of administration granted. Read the full provision →
The order of preference comes first
Rule 78, Section 6 does not hand courts a free choice from the start. When no executor is named in a will, or the named executor cannot or will not serve, or the person died without a will, administration is granted in a fixed sequence. First in line is the family: the surviving husband or wife, as the case may be, or next of kin, or both, in the discretion of the court, or to such person as such surviving husband or wife, or next of kin, requests to have appointed, if competent and willing to serve. Notice the last clause — the spouse or next of kin can also nominate someone else, so a family that does not want the job itself can still steer who gets it.
Creditors are second, not equal
Only when the family tier fails does the rule move on. If the spouse, next of kin, or their chosen nominee is incompetent or unwilling — or if the family simply neglects for thirty days after the death to apply for administration or to request an appointment — the court may grant administration to one or more of the principal creditors, again provided they are competent and willing to serve. A creditor-administrator is not an oddity; someone has to collect the assets, pay the debts, and account to the court, and a major creditor has a real stake in the estate being handled properly rather than left to drift.
When nobody in the list will serve
Your situation sits at the third tier. When the family will not serve, has nominated no one, and no principal creditor is competent and willing, the rule provides: it may be granted to such other person as the court may select. At that point the court's choice genuinely opens up — it can appoint a stranger to the family, and in practice this is how neutral third parties come to administer estates nobody else will take on. But the discretion is the end of a sequence, not a substitute for it. A court cannot leap to its own pick while a competent, willing spouse, next of kin, family nominee, or principal creditor is standing in line.
Discretion is not the same as arbitrariness
Even at the third tier, the appointment is made through a court proceeding, not by decree. Whoever is proposed must still qualify as an administrator, and interested persons — heirs, creditors, anyone with a stake in the estate — are heard before letters of administration issue. The selection is reviewable like any judicial act, so anyone the court wants really means any qualified person, chosen after the preferred candidates have been exhausted, in a proceeding the interested parties can participate in. If you would rather not see a stranger administer your relative's estate, the practical answer is inside the rule itself: a family member can serve, or can nominate a trusted person for appointment, before the choice ever passes out of the family's hands.