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Thursday, March 28, 2024

Morales vows to do job, dares Palace to sue her

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OMBUDSMAN Conchita Carpio-Morales said Tuesday she would continue to investigate allegations of ill-gotten wealth against President Rodrigo Duterte’s and his family, despite the continuing attacks against her from the Palace.

“I will not be baited into abandoning my constitutional duties. If the President has charges against me, I am prepared to answer the charges against him in the same manner,” Morales said in a statement Tuesday.

On Sunday, Morales issued a terse statement that she would abide by her constitutional duty to act on the complaint of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV that the President had P2.4 billion in his bank accounts.

The investigation into Duterte’s wealth was announced by Overall Deputy Ombudsman Arthur Carandang, who said he observed that bank transactions in the President’s joint accounts with his children had come to more than P1 billion.

On Monday, the President said an employee of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas stole his bank details and gave them to Carandang, but he provided no details.

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He also said it was wrong to add up all the transactions to reach the P1-billion figure, and said he would not submit to the authority of the Ombudsman.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales

In an interview on the ANC news channel, lawyer Tony La Viña, former dean of the Ateneo School of Government, said Tuesday the President’s pronouncements are tantamount to saying the Office of the Ombudsman cannot investigate him despite allegations that he kept hidden wealth.

“Your words [as president] actually have a chilling effect. That for me is what’s problematic in what the President said because that was tantamount to saying, ‘I am above the law. I’m above your jurisdiction. You can’t investigate me,’” he told ANC.

Meanwhile, Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said the President cannot be investigated for acts attributed to him before he was elected President.

“He can’t be investigated now as president for acts committed by him when he was mayor,” Panelo said.

Panelo insisted that the President can be investigated, but for purposes of filing an impeachment complaint “if the acts subject of an investigation refer to his acts as president” and “not on acts when he was not yet President.”

Even the President’s relatives, who were implicated in his alleged joint bank accounts cannot be investigated “since the President is also implicated,” Panelo said.

All other investigations against Duterte can be pursued when he steps down as president, he added.

Presidential Spokesman Ernesto Abella, on the other hand, said Duterte would release details of his alleged bank transactions only “if necessary and at the right time.”

Abella also accused the Ombudsman of political bias.

“The Office of the Ombudsman is showing its true political color. We must remind them that it is an independent, anti-graft body that is supposed to conduct an impartial and fair investigation,” Abella said.

“It should not play into the hands of those who cannot accept the fact that the President won in the 2016 election. It should not be a party to a demolition job. We have seen this before, this is déjà vu,” he added.

On Monday, Duterte accused Morales and her office of illegally obtaining evidence against him, as he reiterated that he will not cooperate with their ongoing probe into his alleged ill-gotten wealth.

Claiming that he is experiencing a demolition job similar to the one launched against the late Chief Justice Renato Corona, Duterte said that any evidence that Carpio may have obtained against him won’t stand, since these are not admissible in court.

“I will not obey the Ombudsman because she is corrupt. and she is holding illegally obtained evidence,” the President said in a speech at Marawi City.

Questioning the manner on how could the Office of the Ombudsman obtained his bank records, Duterte said that documents could be obtained only when there was a pending case in court.

The President also insisted that what he only had were “lifetime savings” that “could not be more than P40 million.” He added that he had inherited properties from his parents.

Also on Tuesday, Senator Panfilo Lacson said there was no need for the Senate to investigate former senator Jinggoy Estrada’s claim that an investigator from the Office of the Ombudsman had tried to extort money from him in 2013 to reduce the charges against him from plunder to graft.

“That’s only one case, why would the Blue Ribbon committee [investigate it]?” Lacson said.

He said Estrada could file a case against the official himself, and questioned why the former senator took so long to raise the issue.

“I do not know the reasons why it is only now [that] he came out with this issue,” Lacson said.

He said Estrada should give specifics—who attempted to extort him, when and where did it happen, and how much was involved.

“Those are the details that should be completed. This general statement that there was an attempt to extort, there are many questions. If there are no details, it’s difficult,” Lacson said.

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