Palace dares deputy Ombudsman to question suspension before courts

Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang should question his suspension before the courts if he believed President Rodrigo Duterte did not have authority to sanction him, Malacañang said Thursday.

At a briefing in Baguio City, presidential spokesperson Harry Roque insisted that Duterte would enforce the law despite Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales’ refusal to implement Malacañang’s 90-day preventive suspension order against Carandang for disclosing alleged bank transactions of the First Family.

He added that it would be up to Carandang to clarify the 2014 Supreme Court ruling that said the President cannot discipline deputy ombudsmen.

“If he feels that the President’s order assuming jurisdiction to discipline him is wrong, let him go to court. But we will implement the law. There cannot be an impasse, there’s only one sitting president in this country, and he will implement the law,” Roque said.

“If they think that ruling is basis for him not to be suspended, go get a TRO, without a TRO, we will implement the law,” he added.

The 2014 SC ruling 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.

Carandang on Sept. 27, 2017 announced that the Office of the Ombudsman had 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 the following denied that it had released such documents to the Ombudsman. —NB, GMA News