Complainants ask Palace to ‘physically remove’ Carandang from office

Lawyers on Friday asked Malacañang to bodily remove from his post Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang whom it suspended for disclosing the alleged bank transactions of President Rodrigo Duterte and his family.

Lawyers Jacinto Paras and Glenn Chong, who filed the complaint against Carandang before the Office of the President, said Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has refused to serve the 90-day preventive suspension despite receipt of the order.

“As there is no other way to ensure compliance with the order of preventive suspension, and in view of such refusal, respondent Carandang may now be bodily or physically removed from office or physically restrained from the exercise thereof for the duration of his preventive suspension, through the use of necessary and reasonable force,” the manifestation read.

“To prevent Carandang from returning to his office and make a mockery of the process, contingents of enforcers may be stationed at  or near the entry and exit points of the Ombudsman Building, Agham Road, North Triangle, Diliman, Quezon City, and empowered to prevent such from happening,” it added.

Morales has refused to enforce the suspension order, citing the Supreme Court ruling in 2014 which voided the power of the President to discipline the Deputy Ombudsman.

The Palace, meanwhile, said it was confident to get a reversal if the issue is raised before the high court.

Carandang, who led the probe, had said the records turned over by Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) showed deposits and withdrawals in bank accounts of Duterte's children as well as his common-law wife Honeylet Avanceña.

The AMLC, however, denied providing the Ombudsman with documents and information related to its investigation of the Duterte's alleged billion-peso bank accounts.

The Ombudsman’s fact-finding probe on Duterte family’s bank transactions was terminated on November 29 last year, a development which was announced by Solicitor General Jose Calida on February 13 and was confirmed by the anti-graft body days later.

The Ombudsman blamed the termination on the Anti-Money Laundering Council’s  (AMLC) failure to submit data pertaining to the bank accounts of the First Family.

The anti-graft body added it was not obliged to disclose the results of its fact-finding investigation due to its confidential nature. —NB, GMA News