Ombudsman twits SolGen for letter to 'suspended' Carandang
Audrey Morallo (philstar.com) - February 15, 2018 - 8:20pm
MANILA, Philippines – The Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday twitted the Office of the Solicitor General and said a letter to Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Carandang effectively showed that it recognized the "unconstitutionality" of Malacañang’s preventive suspension against him.
In a statement, the office of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said that Solicitor General Jose Calida "effectively recognized" Carandang as the overall deputy ombudsman through his letter of inquiry dated Feb. 8, 2018.
Morales said that Carandang was "supposedly" under preventive suspension by this date. She said "the Office sees this as a recognition of the unconstitutionality of the preventive suspension order" issued by Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea against Carandang.
The Office of the President and the Ombudsman have been at loggerheads after Morales refused to implement Medialdea's 90-day preventive suspension order because of its unconstitutionality.
Malacañang, on the other hand, defended the president and stressed that it was within his power to discipline deputy ombudsmen, despite a Supreme Court ruling that declared as unconstitutional the president's power to do so in the 1989 Ombudsman Act.
The Palace suspended Carandang for alegedly disclosing false information on the president's supposed bank accounts.
Morales explained that one reason for the lack of announcement on the termination of the probe in the plunder complaint filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV against President Rodrigo Duterte was her inhibition from the investigation.
"The Solicitor General might want to consider whether it is proper for an official who inhibited from an investigation to remain involved therein," Morales said in her statement.
She also emphasized that the Ombudsman is not obliged to inform the subject of a fact-finding probe about its outcome, a fact that Calida himself recognized when he cited the exception under which the Ombudsman could publicize certain matters.
In a press conference announcing the termination of the probe, Calida slammed Morales for not announcing the results considering that it involved the highest office in the land.
Carandang formally informed Calida in a letter on February 12 that the recommendation to terminate the probe was approved by Deputy Ombudsman Cyril Ramos on Nov. 29, 2017.
The fact-finding probe stemmed from the plunder complaint filed by Trillanes in May 2016 alleging that Duterte had P2 billion in bank transactions and hired non-existent ghost employees in the city hall of Davao during his time as its mayor.
Aside from this, Trillanes also accused the president of having more than P200 million in a bank account at the branch of the Bank of the Philippine Islands on Julia Vargas, Pasig City.
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