One of the things that holds a democratic society together and that keeps it strong is the belief of the citizenry that their governmental institutions work and dispense welfare and justice in an even-handed basis. When that belief weakens, a democracy is in trouble.
Of the governmental institutions that over the years have suffered a progressive diminution in prestige and public esteem, the Office of the Ombudsman is almost certainly one of the leaders. Created by the framers of the 1987 Constitution, the Office of the Ombudsman—an office with Scandinavian parentage—has suffered the misfortune of being headed by a succession of weak or visionless individuals. In the face of the proliferation of instances of high-level official wrongdoing, the office either took no official cognizance or meted out unjustifiably weak punishments or, worst of all, dismissed cases on the ground of case weakness. Yet, the authors of the Ombudsman Act clothes that office with a wide array of powers to investigate, dismiss and prosecute erring public officials.
The legislators did so in order to make the Office of the Ombudsman an independent instrumentality of government and make the Ombudsman impervious to political challenge and influence. But things clearly have not turned out the way the framers of the Constitution and the authors of the Ombudsman Act intended them to. This outcome was almost certainly due to the choices of President Corazon Aquino, Fidel Ramos and Gloria Arroyo—Joseph Estrada’s appointment authority was cut short—for the position of Ombudsman. A public office is only as efficacious as its holder wants it to be.
And so for a long time the Filipino people fretted and wished for the day when the nation would have an honest-to-goodness Ombudsman. They need fret and wish no longer, for the hour of deliverance is at hand. Paraphrasing Vatican language, habemus Ombudsman. Her name is Conchita Carpio Morales.
A former Associate Justice of the Supreme Court and regional trial court judge, Conchita Carpio Morales is arguably the most inspired of the numerous high-level appointments President Noy Aquino has made during the last five and a half years. Indeed, when P-Noy’s legacy is evaluated, Justice Morales’s appointment deserves to be regarded as one of its principal parts.
Indicative of things to come, the announcement of Justice Morales’s appointment as Ombudsman was not greeted with the question, “Why her?” That was understandable for the new Ombudsman’s reputation had well preceded her. Justice Morales’s entire career, which has been almost entirely in the judiciary—her father also was a judge—has been untouched by scandal or serious criticism. And her competence and scholarliness are recognized by her colleagues and peers.
That Justice Morales is capable, as well, of firm conviction was perhaps best shown by her ponencia the constitutionality of the 2009 agreement covering the ancestral domains claimed by the Bangsamoro. Her ponencia declared in no uncertain terms as violative of the Constitutional provision on the territorial integrity of the Republic of the Philippines. It was no secret that the administration of President Gloria Arroyo was under great pressure from the governments of the US, Malaysia and the United Kingdom to sign the agreement.
Like a blast of fresh air blowing in newly opened windows, the new Ombudsman during her first two years in office has flexed her disciplinary muscles and begun to deploy the powers vested in her by the Constitution and the law creating her office. Cases that were gathering dust were rendered for the prosecution and hundreds of new cases involving officials high and low have been filed. Not only have dozens of new cases been filed but numerous officials who should have been dismissed many years ago are now receiving dismissal orders. Their ranks have included members of Congress and governors.
But undoubtedly the most celebrated—and the most controversial—of Justice Morales’s dismissal orders has been the one she directed at the mayor of Makati City. Junjun Binay was not only dismissed; he has been disqualified from holding public office ever again. The same disqualification has been meted out to other erring high-level officials.
The Scandinavians, who place the highest value on the office of the Ombudsman, can relate to what Conchita Carpio Morales has been doing during the last two years. They doubtless are saying that she has been doing the things that an Ombudsman is expected to do. They can well claim her as one of their own.
Truly, habemus Ombudsman. For too long we didn’t have one. That is no longer the case.
For reminding us that one person, one citizen, can do so much to restore the Filipino people’s faith in the concept of rectitude in government, I cast my vote for Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales as Citizen of the Year 2015.
E-mail: rudyromero777@yahoo.com