We say that President Duterte should leave Ombudsman Carpio-Morales alone and let her do her job. He must back off.
What Ombudsman Carpio-Morales is doing is within the ambit of her functions. She is not usurping the functions of Congress, which has the sole power to initiate (with respect the House of Representatives) and to try and decide (with respect the Senate) all cases of impeachment. (1987 Constitution, Article XI, Section 3 (1, 6)).
Her initiative to investigate the President, an impeachable public official, is within the mandated granted her office none other than by the 1987 Constitution.
The Office of the Ombudsman has the constitutional mandate to investigate on its own any illegal act of any public officer, including the President. The 1987 Constitution provides:
"Article XI, Section 13. The Office of the Ombudsman shall have the following powers, functions, and duties: Investigate on its own, or on complaint by any person, any act or omission of any public official, employee, office or agency, when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper, or inefficient. Investigate on its own, or on complaint by any person, any act or omission of any public official, employee, office or agency, when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper, or inefficient.”
The foregoing is likewise supported by the Rules of Procedure of the Office of the Ombudsman. It provides:
"xxx provided, however, that the Office of the Ombudsman may investigate any serious misconduct in office allegedly committed by officials removable only by impeachment for the purpose of filing a verified complaint for impeachment, if warranted.” (Rule III, Sec. 2)
Clearly, the moves being undertaken by the Office of the President against the Office of the Ombudsman is contrary to the posture taken by President Duterte when he was still a presidential candidate seeking the votes of the people. It will be remembered that he, together with then VP candidate Alan Peter Cayetano, signed a bank secrecy waiver in March 2016. He even challenged his rivals to the presidency to similarly sign waivers, “in the interest of transparency and accountability and to deter corruption in any form in the government”.
It seems though that this move was just a big political gimmick because the waiver that Pres. Duterte and Sec. Cayetano signed during the campaign was invalid, unusable and did not specify the banks or any account numbers.
The fact that up till now Pres. Duterte refuses to issue a genuine and valid waiver to see the history of his bank transactions in any specific bank is a strong indication that he is hiding something and fears that it would be exposed. That is why he is going all out in his demolition and harassment campaign against the Ombudsman who is investigating him.
The allegations against Duterte and his family are grave and serious, and it is but right for the Office of the Ombudsman to act accordingly on such serious matter. Now if the President is really sincere and has nothing to hide, and in the same interest of transparency and accountability that he invoked when he was still a presidential aspirant, he must allow the Office of the Ombudsman to perform her functions, without any form of threat, harassment or intimidation. News Release
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