QUEZON City, Philippines (Eagle News) — Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo reminded Over-All Deputy Ombudsman Arthur Carandang to follow the Office of the Ombudsman’s own rules regarding premature disclosures of ongoing investigations of the Ombudsman, particularly the probe on the alleged bank account of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo said that Carandang forgot that the Ombudsman’s own regulation prohibited premature disclosure of its investigations.
Panelo explained that this will not be fair on the part of the respondent as this creates a wrong public impression.
“We would remind the overall deputy to be prudent because he may face administrative sanctions,” Panelo said.
“We’re just reminding him of their own internal rules, rules implementing the law. He might have forgotten it,” he added.
Carandang on Wednesday claimed in a television interview that he was able to get the president’s bank records before he became a president dated 2006 up to 2016 through the government’s Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
But the AMLC denied that it had given information and documents to the Ombudsman related to the alleged billion-peso bank accounts of President Duterte.
“We have categorically stated before that the Anti-Money Laundering Council is not the source of the documents and information attached by Senator Antonio F. Trillanes IV in his complaint regarding the alleged bank accounts of President Rodrigo Duterte,” the AMLC said in a statement.
“It has neither provided the Office of the Ombudsman with any report as a consequence of any investigation of subject accounts for any purpose,” it added.
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