Complainants ready vs Morales impeachment

MANILA, Philippines — Several complainants, some of them identified with the Duterte administration, have readied their impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.

Their lawyer, Manuelito Luna, emailed to reporters yesterday their 110-page draft complaint, which they intend to file with the House of Representatives when Congress resumes session on Nov. 20.

None of the seven complainants has signed the complaint. No House member has affixed his or her signature as an endorser. An impeachment case has to be signed by at least one member for the House to process it.

The listed complainants are former Negros Oriental congressman Jacinto Paras, former Metro Rail Transit 3 general manager Al Vitangcol, Juan Rana, Roel Degamo, Eligio Mallari, Teresita Baltazar and Evelyn Kolayko.

Paras is one of the petitioners in the impeachment case against resigned Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Andres Bautista. He is a self-confessed Duterte supporter.

The House committee on justice dismissed the complaint against Bautista, but the plenary reversed the dismissal and voted to impeach the Comelec chief.

Before the House could send the case to the Senate for trial, President Duterte accepted Bautista’s resignation, making the impeachment process unnecessary.

Vitangcol is facing a graft complaint before the ombudsman in connection with MRT-3 irregularities when he was general manager.

Duterte’s House allies are expected to act on another impeachment complaint, aside from the one pending against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.

Mindoro Oriental Rep. Reynaldo Umali, justice committee chairman, has said his panel was done with the Bautista case but that “one or two more cases were coming.”

In their draft complaint, Paras and his colleagues enumerated nine impeachment charges against Morales.

Among the charges against the ombudsman are her supposed failure to act timely on complaints, her practice of selective justice (the same accusation leveled repeatedly against her by the President), violation of the Constitution for ordering the dismissal of Sen. Joel Villanueva and Iligan Rep. Frederick Siao for allegedly misusing their pork barrel funds, and filing of old cases that end up being dismissed by the Sandiganbayan. 

They also accuse Morales of sitting on the case of former president Benigno Aquino lll in connection with the botched police raid in Mamasapano, Maguindanao that resulted in the death of 44 policemen and indiscriminately challenging judgments of acquittal by the Sandiganbayan notwithstanding the constitutional ban on double jeopardy.

The complainants also allege that Morales conspired with her overall deputy, Melchor Arthur Carandang, “to disclose information of a confidential character, and to spread vicious lies against President Duterte in order to undermine his presidency and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).”

They were referring to Carandang’s recent statements that his office has started an investigation into the allegation of Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV that Duterte has amassed more than P2 billion in ill-gotten wealth. The President has denied the accusation.

Carandang said they had received documents showing that the President and his family had bank transactions totaling at least P1 billion over the years.

The AMLC has denied giving the ombudsman Duterte’s bank records.

The President has vowed to impeach Sereno and Morales and remove Carandang, who is facing an administration complaint filed by administration supporters with Malacañang. 

Sereno and Morales have separately said they would fight off impeachment with a clean conscience.