Malacañanghas ordered the dismissal of Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang after he was found guilty of graft, corruption and betrayal of public trust, an official said Wednesday.
Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said the Palace decided to dismiss Carandang “after giving due consideration to the administrative complaints filed against him.”
“It has been decided that Mr. Carandang’s acts of making public statements about allegations in an ongoing investigation were in breach of his duty to protect confidential information,” Roque said.
Carandang’s case stemmed from an ABS-CBN news report in 2017 saying the President and his family had allegedly accumulated billions of pesos in ill-gotten wealth.
The source of the report was Carandang, who declared that the Office of the Ombudsman acquired evidence of Duterte’s ill-gotten wealth through bank transaction records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council.
Roque said Carandang’s acts demonstrated manifest partiality and violated the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.
Malacañang said it reached its decision after giving Carandang opportunities to respond to the charges against him.
The Palace order, dated June 30, says Carandang’s transgressions “constitute Graft and Corruption as well as Betrayal of Public Trust, which gravely affects his fitness to remain in public office.”
The dismissal order will cancel Carandang’s eligibility, disqualify him from holding public office, prohibit him from taking the civil service examination and forfeit his retirement benefits.
Malacañang said Carandang violated Section 7 of the Republic Act 6713 on the disclosure and/or misuse of confidential information in order to give undue advantage to Senator Trillanes IV, who had filed a plunder complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte back in May 2016.
“This Office finds that respondent Carandang is guilty of Grave Misconduct,” Malacañang said. It cited his violations of RA 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, and RA 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials and Employees.
“He was clearly only interested to broadcast an information adverse to the President,” Malacañang said.
“His keeping mum about an information that was favorable to the President clearly amounted to manifest partiality.””‹