THE Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday finally broke its silence over the reports of the termination of an investigation into the plunder complaint of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV against President Rodrigo Duterte in November last year.
The agency said the probe on the complaint filed against Aquino was terminated on Nov. 29 after the Anti-Money Laundering Council declined to provide a report on requested vital data.
But it said “[a] closed and terminated field investigation is without prejudice to the refiling of a complaint with new or additional evidence.”
“It has come to the knowledge of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales from the press briefing of Solicitor General Jose Calida that he has been informed of the closure and termination of the investigation, through a 12 February 2018 letter-response to his letter-inquiry dated 8 February 2018 addressed to Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang,” the agency said in a statement
Morales defended the Ombudsman’s silence when Calida “raised certain questions which may be answered by his own declarations.”
“He asked why the Ombudsman kept quiet about the matter. Oddly, he himself pointed out that the Ombudsman had inhibited herself from the investigation,” Carpio-Morales said.
“The Solicitor General might want to consider whether it is proper for an official who inhibited from an investigation to remain involved therein. The Ombudsman posits that it is not. In keeping therewith, the investigation was given free rein and proceeded without her intervention.
In fact, the Ombudsman learned about such closure and termination only on Jan. 29, 2018, upon an inquiry on the status thereof after learning that Overall Deputy Ombudsman Carandang was formally charged and placed under preventive suspension by the Office of the President.
“The Ombudsman trusts that in the conduct of fact-finding investigations, efforts are exhausted to gather evidence and to comply with pertinent internal rules. Fact-finding investigations, under the rules, are generally confidential in nature. The Office is not obliged to inform the subject of the fact-finding investigation about its outcome.
“Finally, the Office observes that the Solicitor General effectively recognized Carandang as the Overall Deputy Ombudsman through his official letter-inquiry dated 8 February 2018 addressed to ODO Carandang who, at such date, had been “supposedly” under preventive suspension. The Office sees this as a recognition of the unconstitutionality of the preventive suspension order.”
On Feb. 9, Calida wrote the Ombudsman a letter asking for the status of the investigation.
He questioned why the Ombudsman did not disclose the termination of the investigation.