Morales named icon of legal excellence, public service

MANILA, Philippines - Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales is scheduled to receive another prestigious award next week for her exemplary performance in the judiciary and as the country’s chief graft-buster who has taken the fight against corruption to a higher level.

The University of the Philippines Women’s Lawyers Circle (WILOCI) will honor her as a Distinguished Icon of Legal Excellence and Public Service on Sept. 2.

Morales was also chosen as one of this year’s 2016 Ramon Magsaysay awardees, considered the Asian equivalent of the Nobel Prize. 

Her latest award from UP represents another facet of her journey as a legal luminary who has continuously espoused the WILOCI advocacy of rendering free legal aid to disadvantaged women and children, the group said.

She will be honored for leading the judiciary towards professionalism, excellence and integrity as exemplified by her unblemished track record since earning her bachelor of laws degree from the UP College of Law in 1968.

Since then, WILOCI said Morales blazed a trail of excellence in the legal profession, foremost of which was her long service in the Supreme Court. 

The group said “the Supreme Court and the Filipino nation have been enriched by the brilliance, dedication, courage, integrity and patriotism of WILOCI” awardees including Morales, who stamped her mark of professional discipline and judicial ethics in the high court as an associate justice from 2002 to 2011.

Among her fellow awardees are Chief Justice Ma. Lourdes Sereno, SC Justice Teresita Leonardo-de Castro, former SC justices Ameurfina Melencio-Herrera, Carolina Griño-Aquino (posthumous), Irene Cortes (posthumous), Flerida Ruth Pineda-Romero, Minerva Gonzaga-Reyes, Consuelo Yñares-Santiago, Alice Austria-Martinez and Minita Chico-Nazario. 

Also to receive awards are former senators Miriam Defensor-Santiago and Pia Cayetano, Aurora Rep. Bellaflor Angara-Castillo, former ambassador and chair of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) Lilia Bautista, former chair of the Commission on Audit and now UN-Independent Advisory Audit Committee (IAAC) vice chair Grace Pulido-Tan and incumbent SEC chair Teresita Herbosa.