Drilon defends Morales' bid for ombudsman post

MANILA, Philippines -  Senators Franklin Drilon and Miriam Defensor-Santiago took contrasting views yesterday on the nomination of retiring Supreme Court Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales as the successor of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

Drilon, an ally of President Aquino in the Liberal Party, vouched for the integrity of Morales while Santiago expressed belief that the retiring justice may not be able to handle effectively the heavy workload at the Office of the Ombudsman.

Gutierrez resigned early this month due to massive pressure arising from the controversial plea bargaining agreement with ex-military comptroller Carlos Garcia.

“I know personally Justice Conchita Morales… she is very competent and she has the respect of the general public. The one who will sit there should be a respected individual,” Drilon said.

He noted that Morales was a year ahead of him when they were enrolled at the UP College of Law. Drilon graduated with a law degree in 1969.

Santiago had outlined three reasons why Morales should not be appointed to the post.

Apart from age, she said the post is a demotion for a retiring justice and that her appointment might become a precedent for Aquino.

She stressed somebody already of retirement age should not be given a heavy workload.

“I don’t think that someone who has been retired at 70 should be assigned to a job where, according to its former occupant, she inherited at least 30,000 cases from her predecessor,” Santiago said.

She agreed with the view of former ombudsman Aniano Desierto on the nomination of Morales because he knows whereof he speaks.

“I would have to agree with the comments of the former ombudsman who is speaking only as the voice of experience. Number one: I find it virtually an oxymoron to say that one person has retired from his job, presumably because he is old, and then accepted the appointment for a new job, which means to say that he has youth to tackle the challenges of that job,” Santiago said.

“If you are already a justice of the Supreme Court or at the apex of your legal career, the ombudsman is really nothing more than a glorified fiscal or prosecutor,” she said. “When you’re in trial court you sit up there at the bench, and the prosecutors sit down there before you, looking up at you. So it is very difficult to reconcile in the mind a person who has already been up there on the bench. No one wants to go down in the ordinary counsel’s table.”

The veteran lawmaker said it might be a very dangerous precedent because if the President keeps on appointing retired Supreme Court justices, “he can influence the outcome of certain cases with a promise that he could appoint certain people after their retirement.”

Santiago said former President Corazon Aquino, mother of the incumbent President, had offered her the ombudsman post when she was younger but she declined it.

“Even at that time when I was very young, I declined because I could hardly cope with my caseload as an RTC judge. Caseload was only 30 cases a month so I had a caseload of maybe 200 and I knew that the caseload at the Office of the Ombudsman was much higher, so I declined even at that young age,” she added.

Santiago, however, took exception to comments of Desierto who cited old age and being female as reasons why Morales should not be appointed to the post.

“However, I want to add also that although the comments of Mr. Desierto are based on age, which is now frowned upon, still I support him, and yet, I will decry his sexist comment that women should not be appointed to the Ombudsman because they are emotional,” she said.

Santiago said she never showed emotions when she handed down decisions during her stint as a regional trial court judge.

“I wish he did not say that. In my case, for example, I am virtually emotionless when I am sitting on the bench. I have sent many people to jail for life but I never had any emotional problems about it. I just wish that he could eliminate that aspect of the discussion,” she said.

Justice Morales will retire from the bench on June 19 when she turns 70. She is among the candidates for the post of ombudsman.

Drilon: Review ombudsman’s power

Meanwhile, Drilon is mulling the review of the prosecutorial powers vested in the ombudsman.

“Now, in my view, the ombudsman is not supposed to prosecute,” he said.

Drilon noted that under the Constitution, the “tanodbayan” or the special prosecutor is authorized to prosecute.

“Under proceedings of the Constitutional Commission, when they crafted the provision on the ombudsman and the special prosecutor, the concept was the prosecution will be done by the special prosecutor,” he said.

Drilon explained that the conceptualization is that the ombudsman, a European concept, is somebody of stature whose mere statements should correct wrong practices in government.

“In other words, the concept was, the ombudsman should be somebody who is a respected citizen. I am now reviewing the powers of the ombudsman and see if this grant of prosecutorial powers should be removed as that is not consistent with the debates in the Constitutional Commission,” he said.