(Eagle News) — The Office of the Ombudsman said on Thursday that it was not “obliged to inform the subject of the fact-finding investigation about its outcome.”
The anti-graft body issued the statement days after Solicitor General Jose Calida lashed out at the agency for its failure to announce that the investigation into the allegations contained in Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s plunder complaint against President Rodrigo Duterte had been terminated for “lack of merit.”
The Ombudsman said the investigation was “closed” on November 29, 2017 after the Anti-Money Laundering Council “declined to provide a report or confirmation on the requested vital data.”
“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 anti-graft body said.
According to the body, the Solicitor General himself “recognized” the “confidentiality of proceedings” when he “cited the exception that the Ombudsman has the power to publicize certain matters.”
“(Calida) asked why the Ombudsman kept quiet about the matter. Oddly, he himself pointed out that the Ombudsman had inhibited herself from the investigation. The Solicitor General might want to consider whether it is proper for an official who inhibited from an investigation to remain involved therein,” the anti-graft body said, referring to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.
Recognition of Carandang
The Ombudsman also noted that Calida “effectively recognized” Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Carandang as the ODO “through his official letter-inquiry dated February 8, 2018 addressed to ODO Carandang who, at such date, had been ‘supposedly’ under preventive suspension.”
The anti-graft body was referring to the 90-day preventive suspension meted out by Malacanang against the Ombudsman official for his alleged leaking of supposed bank documents of President Duterte and his family that were used as bases for Trillanes’ complaint.
The Ombudsman added that Calida actually recognizes “the unconstitutionality of the preventive suspension order” against Carandang when he “showed the Deputy Ombudsman’s reply-letter to him before the media.”
On Tuesday, Calida said the Ombudsman should explain first why the results of the probe were not made public.
“What puzzles me is why Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales kept quiet about this. If I did not write a letter last week, I would not know this,” Calida said.