Carandang suspension is immediately executory without TRO, Palace says

The suspension of Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang is immediately executory in the absence of a temporary restraining order from a court, Malacañang said on Tuesday.

At a briefing in Marawi City, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque Jr. insisted that President Rodrigo Duterte could sanction deputy ombudsmen, despite a 2014 Supreme Court ruling saying otherwise.

“It is immediately executory. It’s subject... of course, it is his decision whether he wants to run to court. But without a TRO from the courts, it’s immediately executory,” he said.

Roque added that it would be up to Carandang to seek help from the courts.

“It is actually up to him. We will implement the order. If he wants to go to court, because I understand he’s saying it’s unconstitutional, let him. But we will not go to court because our reading is the Office of the President has the power to discipline him,” he said.

A 2014 Supreme Court ruling said that the President could not discipline a deputy ombudsman. It said that Section 8 (2) of The Ombudsman Act of 1989, which allowed a President to remove a deputy ombudsman or a special prosecutor "for any of the grounds provided for the removal of the Ombudsman, and after due process," was unconstitutional.

Two years before that decision, the SC in a 2012 ruling had denied a request to declare the particular section as constitutional.

The request came from then-Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras-Sulit, who was being investigated over the plea bargain agreement entered into by the government and accused plunderer, retired Major General Carlos Garcia.

Carandang is charged with grave misconduct and grave dishonesty for the unauthorized disclosures of the alleged bank transactions of President Rodrigo Duterte and his family. He has also been put under preventive suspension for 90 days.

Carandang announced on Sept. 27, 2017 that the Office of the Ombudsman has started a probe on the wealth of the First Family based on the complaint of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

Trillanes claimed that the basis for the complaint against Duterte were bank records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

Carandang then claimed that the Office of the Ombudsman was in possession of bank records that show the flow of money through deposits and withdrawals from Duterte's sons, Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo and Sebastian "Baste," and his joint accounts with his daughter, Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.

The AMLC, however, denied the following day that it had released such documents to the Ombudsman.

'Reckless, impossible'

Duterte's chief presidential legal counsel Secretary Salvador Panelo said that the "reckless and irresponsible" Trillanes "maliciously misled" the public when he said that Carandang's suspension was considered bullying.

"Public office is a public trust and accordingly, those who abuse such trust must be held accountable. No one is exempt from taking responsibility for their misdeeds, let alone ODO Carandang," he said in a statement.

"Neither may ODO Carandang conveniently hide under the shield of the requirement of an impeachment because the Constitution is clear, the requirement of impeachment for purposes of removal from public office only applies to the Ombudsman herself and does not extend to her deputies," he added.

Panelo said that Carandang's action showed that he is unfit to hold office in the  Office of the Ombudsman or any other public office.

"No one is above the law and those that break it will be held responsible, hence the suspension," he said. — MDM/BM, GMA News