JUSTICE SECRETARY JESUS Crispin Remulla’s manifest interest in applying for the Constitutional office of the Ombudsman, with its 7-year prescribed term, is a political strategy. Others claim this could ensure his clan and those of the sitting president, Ferdinand Marcos Jr., would be protected from graft and corrupt charges until 2032.
Remulla told media he would apply for the post once vacated by an appointee of former President Rodrigo Duterte (now incarcerated at the International Criminal Court in the Netherlands) Samuel Martires, upon his retirement on July 27.
The Ombudsman’s office investigates and prosecutes corrupt public officials and can only be removed by impeachment by the House of Representatives and convicted by the Senate impeachment court as was the case of Merceditas Gutierrez in 2011.
A LOT TO OFFER
Created by the 1987 Constitution, the Ombudsman can only be removed through impeachment by the House of Representatives and conviction by the Senate impeachment court, Business World reported.
The Ombudsman can file administrative, civil and criminal cases against erring public officials before the Sandiganbayan, the country’s anti-graft court.
Remulla said he plans to file his application for the Ombudsman with the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) this week, adding that he has shortlisted candidates to replace him as Justice secretary in case he gets appointed.
“I think I have a lot to offer there,” he told reporters.
The justice secretary said he had signified his interest to become the next Ombudsman to the President.
“I’ve already communicated my interest through a mutual contact,” he said.
GRAFTBUSTER
The JBC, which screens nominees for judicial and quasi-judicial bodies like the Office of the Ombudsman, started the application period for the next graft-buster in May.
Remulla himself is facing a complaint before the Ombudsman over the arrest of the former president and his subsequent transfer to The Netherlands, where he is facing charges of crimes against humanity in connection with his deadly war on drugs. But he said this is no hindrance to his applying for the post.
The JBC would take the complaint into consideration when screening him. “I think the JBC is in the best position to appreciate whatever I have to offer as Ombudsman,” he added.
Last May 7, Martires ordered several top officials of the Marcos administration to file a counter affidavit within 10 days from receipt of his order in relation to the former president’s arrest and detention in the Hague. This he did in response to the charge filed by the presidential sister, a known ally of Duterte, Imee Marcos against the administration.
STAUNCH DEFENDER
Martires had been a staunch defender of the exiled president in preventing the publication of his annual statement of assets, liabilities and networth (SALN)– even to the point of asking a budget hearing that penalties of five years in jail be meted to anyone who commented on the SALN of government employees, stating that SALN has been “weaponized” because it has been used to destroy reputations. Such that until Duterte’s term ended, all requests for SALN had fallen on deaf ears and the latter’s wealth remained hiding, remarked Rappler.
In 2023, he also proposed to the House to drop a provision in the annual national budget requiring the public of Commission on Audit reports in government agencies referring to COA’s red flags, which Martires said caused confusion and prompted the public to prejudge as guilty those flagged by COA.
With his retirement, Martires’ immunity from suits would also be gone.