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Friday, March 29, 2024

Ombudsman to enforce dismissal order vs Carandang

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Newly appointed Ombudsman Samuel Martires on Monday vowed to implement the dismissal order issued by President Rodrigo Duterte against overall deputy ombudsman Arthur Carandang.

Martires said that he has “no choice” but to enforce the dismissal order once it becomes final on the part of the Palace.

Martires added that Carandang still has 15 days to appeal the order, which would become “immediately executory” should the Palace deny his motion for reconsideration.

“I have no choice,” Martires said, when asked if he would enforce Carandang’s suspension once the Palace affirms its order and in the absence of a temporary restraining order from a court.

“I don’t have any discretion with respect to that… I think he [Carandang] knows that immediately he has to leave the office,” added Martires, who took his oath of office in the Supreme Court.

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According to Martires, a former magistrate in the Sandiganbayan prior to his promotion to the SC, he knew Carandang is “not that hard headed” and “a very reasonable guy.”

“The provisions on administrative cases are very clear—that it is immediately executory. As a lawyer, Carandang knows what he has to do,” he added.

The Ombudsman said that Carandang could file a petition and seek relief before the Court.

Asked why he would enforce the dismissal order despite the standing 2014 Supreme Court ruling that voided the President’s disciplinary jurisdiction over a deputy ombudsman, Martires said that “This is a matter that is left to the courts to decide, I don’t want to comment on that at the moment.”

Martires said that should Carandang file a motion for reconsideration and once it is denied, the Office of the Ombudsman would be constrained to remove him.

“I have to wait for that time when Malacañan denies that motion for reconsideration, shall I cross the bridge,” Martires said.

Martires’ predecessor, Conchita Carpio-Morales, had declined to enforce an earlier suspension order issued by Malacanang also against Carandang due to this jurisprudence.

The order against Carandang emanated from the complaint filed by lawyer Manuelito Luna, and suspended lawyer Eligio Mallari in October last year.

The two accused Carandang of corruption for causing “undue injury to any party, including the government,” as well as for giving “unwarranted benefits” through “manifest partiality” and for “divulging valuable information of a confidential character.”

The complaint involved a media interview where Carandang was quoted as saying that his office had already received the bank transaction records of the president’s family from 2006 to 2016 from the Anti-Money Laundering Council—a statement that was later denied by the money laundering watchdog.

Carandang has maintained that his office “has observed confidentiality” in the probe into Duterte and his family’s bank transactions.

In January, Malacañang ordered a 90-day preventive suspension against Carandang after it decided that the Ombudsman executive had committed grave dishonesty for misuse of confidential information and disclosing false information, under the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

However, Morales, citing the Supreme Court ruling on Gonzales III v Office of the President, said that the suspension order was “patently unconstitutional.”

The said SC ruling held as illegal the administrative disciplinary jurisdiction of the president over deputy ombudsmen. The SC ruled that Section 8(2) of RA 6770 or The Ombudsman Act of 1989 was unconstitutional by granting disciplinary jurisdiction to the president over a deputy ombudsman as it violates the independence of the Office of the Ombudsman.

In a related development,

Martires said he would likely to issue today (Tuesday) an order dismissing over one-year-old cases still undergoing fact-finding probe.

“Probably tomorrow (Tuesday), I will be issuing an order dismissing all cases that are more than one-year old that are still undergoing fact-finding investigation, without prejudice to the refiling of these cases,” Martires told a congressional hearing on budget deliberation.

He said he has also ordered an inventory of cases that are pending fact-finding investigation.

He reacted to the Supreme Court’s order that the reckoning period for the right to speedy case disposition must start from the preliminary investigation stage.

At least 135 cases have been dismissed by the Sandiganbayan for inordinate delay, he said.

Martires added that he would soon issue an office order to shorten the period for a preliminary investigation to only 90 days.

Previously, investigations did not have any time limitations.

Martires vowed to terminate all motions for reconsideration within 60 days, and that he would make the investigation officers liable to explain why a case could be resolved beyond the 60-day deadline.

He also promised to end the practice of dismissing or suspending a public official through the resolution of counter-affidavits.

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