CHIEF Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo on Thursday asked Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Carandang to resign to spare the Office of the Ombudsman from further embarrassment.
He told a television interview Carandang should also step down to save his superior from being dragged into a quarrel with the Executive branch.
“If I were Deputy Carandang, just to stop all these, maybe I should resign,” Panelo said.
“What he did was to drag the Ombudsman into this mess. [He violated an] administrative rule that you cannot reveal confidential documents.”
But at least two senators on Thursday warned of a constitutional crisis if the Supreme Court would not intervene to resolve the conflict between Malacañang and the Office of the Ombudsman over Carandang’s suspension by President Rodrigo Duterte.
“The Supreme Court should immediately intervene. Otherwise, there could be a constitutional crisis as there is a conflict and a clash between two independent constitutional offices”•the President and the Ombudsman,” said Senate Minority Leader Franklin Drilon.
“The Supreme Court must rule as the final arbiter.”
Senator Francis Escudero said the Solicitor General could raise the issue before the Supreme Court “for mandamus/certiorari or the Ombudsman via an injunction/certiorari.”
He supported Drilon’s stance that the high court is the final interpreter of the law.
Senator Francis Pangilinan said the Ombudsman was simply enforcing a high court decision that says the President cannot suspend the Ombudsman or his or her deputies.
Asked if Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales would continue to refuse to implement Carandang’s 90-day suspension, Panelo warned that Morales risked facing criminal or administrative cases.
Asked if Morales’ defiance was impeachable, Panelo said: “It depends. If it is malicious and deliberate, it can be considered a betrayal of public trust. Otherwise it may not be.”
Last year, Duterte said Morales could face an impeachment case because she was part of the “conspiracy” to oust him through the investigations into his alleged unexplained wealth, which supposedly amounted to billions of pesos.
The President also accused Morales of “selective justice,” adding the Ombudsman was in possession of illegally obtained documents of his and his family’s bank accounts from the AMLC.
Panelo said the President had no intention to intrude into the independence of the Ombudsman, adding Duterte “is in fact protecting and preserving the Constitutional article on Public Accountability.”
“The actions of any government official enjoy the presumption of regularity and should be treated as a lawful and operative act,” Panelo said.
