(Eagle News) — Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales finally broke her silence on Malacanang’s suspension of Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang, saying that the move was unconstitutional.
According to Morales, the Supreme Court already declared “the administrative disciplinary jurisdiction of the President over deputy ombudsmen” as such in 2014, in the case Gonzales III vs Office of the President.
As such, her office said the order would not be enforced.
“The Ombudsman cannot, therefore, seriously place at risk the independence of the very Office which she has pledged to protect on the strength of the constitutional guarantees which the High Court has upheld,” she said in a statement.
According to Morales, the act of the Office of the President “in taking cognizance of the complaints against the Overall Deputy Ombudsman and ordering his preventive suspension was not an inadvertent error..”
She said it was a “clear affront to the Supreme Court and an impairment of the constitutionally enshrined independence of the Office of the Ombudsman.”
“In a society founded on the rule of law, the arbitrary disregard of a clearly worded jurisprudence coupled with a confident stance that it will be changed should never be countenanced,” she said.
Earlier, Solicitor General Jose Calida said that “the subsequent enactment of the Ombudsman Act” expressly granted the authority to discipline the Deputy Ombudsman to the President.
“The Supreme Court has held that the power to discipline is lodged in the same authority in whom the power to appoint is vested,” he said.
Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque agreed, noting also that the suspension of Carandang was “immediately executory.”
Carandang has also been charged for grave misconduct and grave dishonesty for the unauthorized disclosures of what he said were the bank transactions of President Rodrigo Duterte and his family.
These were used by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV in his so-called exposé of the President.