Ex-Ombudsman Morales: Abolishing Office of the Ombudsman will breed more corruption

The abolition of the Office of the Ombudsman will breed more corrupt activities, former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales said Wednesday.

Morales, a retired Associate Justice of the Supreme Court, issued the statement a day after Ombudsman Samuel Martires suggested that the Ombudsman’s office might as well be abolished if witnesses will continue to refuse to testify against corrupt officials.

“Testimonial evidence is not the only evidence to build up a case. There is documentary, object, physical, circumstantial evidence. Subpoena duces tecum can be used to produce documents,” Morales said.

The documentary evidence, Morales said, include the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth  (SALN) and records from the Anti-Money Laundering Council.

“To abolish the office will open the floodgates to the commission of more corrupt activities. Allegedly, the policy is to dismiss complaints,” Morales, who was an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court from August 2002 to June 2011, added.

But Martires, who also served as Supreme Court Associate Justice from March 2017 to July 2018, earlier said that there is no need to conduct lifestyle check on public officials because the required simple living among public officials under the Republic Act 6713 or the Code of Conduct and Ethical Standards for Public Officials can be relative.

“What is simple living to me may not be simple living to you or anybody,” Martires said during the hearing on the Ombudsman’s proposed P3.7 billion budget for 2021 before the House Appropriations panel.

Likewise, Martires has defended his decision to restrict the public’s access to SALN under the repository of the Ombudsman via requiring consent of declarant (owner of the SALN), among other restrictions.

Martires made the position even if Section 8C.A of RA 6713 also mandates disclosure of these SALNs to the public at a certain period of time and as long as the one making the request shoulders the cost of reproduction and mailing of the SALN copies.

Martires further said that the Ombudsman does not need SALN in prosecuting graft and plunder cases.

“Anong pakialam natin sa buhay ng may buhay kung hindi naman siya nagnanakaw?,” Martires said. — RSJ, GMA News