Duterte’s 1st SC appointee seeks ombudsman post

MANILA, Philippines — One of the eight Supreme Court (SC) magistrates who voted to oust chief justice Maria Lourdes Sereno is now vying for the ombudsman position to be vacated by retired SC associate justice Conchita Carpio-Morales in July.

Associate Justice Samuel Martires, President Duterte’s first appointee to the SC, is among the 10 initial candidates for the post listed by the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) after the deadline for application and nomination lapsed last Tuesday.

The former Sandiganbayan magistrate, who is retiring from the judiciary in January next year, voted with the majority in the SC ruling last May 11 that granted the quo warranto petition of the solicitor general, invalidating the appointment of Sereno to the top judicial post for failing to file her statements of assets, liabilities and net worth.

Martires also wrote the anti-graft court’s decision in 2011 that junked graft charges against the President, then Davao City mayor, over the demolition of a park built by Duterte’s political rival, former House speaker Prospero Nograles.

Martires, a graduate of San Beda College law school like Duterte, penned the controversial Sandiganbayan decision that approved the plea bargain deal entered into by alleged plunderer, retired military official Carlos Garcia and the Office of the Ombudsman.

Apart from Martires, the nine other applicants for ombudsman are: Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, Sandiganbayan Justice Efren de la Cruz, Special Prosecutor and former Sandiganbayan presiding justice Edilberto Sandoval, Davao City regional trial court judge Carlos Espero II, Duterte’s lawyer Edna Batacan, his law school classmate Rex Rico and lawyers Rey Ifurung, Rainier Madrid and Felito Ramirez. 

Two other SC justices – Presbitero Velasco Jr. and Teresita Leonardo-de Castro – were nominated for the post but both of them declined.

It was learned that House majority floor leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas and Solicitor General Jose Calida also did not accept their respective nominations for the post.

Morales, 76, was appointed by former president Benigno Aquino III as ombudsman in 2011.

She replaced Merceditas Gutierrez, who resigned on May 6, 2011 from the post to avoid an impeachment trial in the Senate, leaving an unexpired term until Nov. 30, 2012.