That’s how mighty the President is

The almightiness of the President over the Ombudsman, Supreme Court, and Congress is about to be proved again. The test case is Rodrigo Duterte’s suspension of Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Carandang.

The Executive Secretary, traditionally called “Little President,” ordered Carandang out for 90 days, for “leaking” bank documents on Duterte’s supposed hundred-million-pesos undeclared wealth. The papers were akin to Sen. Antonio Trillanes’ bases for charging Duterte with plunder before the Ombudsman in May 2016. For Malacañang, Carandang’s disclosure of “confidential (and) false information” was grave misconduct and grave dishonesty.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales rejected the suspension, branding it unconstitutional and impairing the anti-graft body’s independence. She cited the Supreme Court’s voiding in 2014 of Section 8(2) of the Ombudsman Act of 1989 that empowered the President to discipline Ombudsman deputies. That G.R. No. 196231 arose from President Noynoy Aquino’s 2011 suspension of Deputy Ombudsman Emilio Gonzalez, on a hostage-taking policeman’s claim of extorting P200,000 to fix a disciplinary tiff. In keeping with the Constitution, the SC declared that not only the Ombudsman but also the deputies are insulated from Executive interference. The justices’ 8-7 vote was entered in the books, meaning final and non-appealable.

But nothing’s writ in stone for lawyers on high. Solicitor General Jose Calida retorted that the authority to discipline rests with the same authority that appoints – the President. So opined the SC minority in 2014. Calida dared Ombudsman Morales to re-file with the SC. Does he foresee a reversal of judgment? Five of the 15 justices have since retired, and four of the replacements were by Duterte. InterAksiyon tracked last Oct. that SC appointees of Duterte and President Gloria Arroyo tend to vote as one, as in her plunder acquittal, martial law in Mindanao, Marcos’ burial at Libingan ng mga Bayani, and Sen. Leila de Lima’s no-bail detention.

Presidential Chief Legal Counsel Sal Panelo warned Morales too of administrative and criminal charges. Worse is another impeachment, for defying Malacañang. The complaint filed against the Ombudsman last Nov. is in limbo because un-endorsed by any congressman. An impeachable officer can be charged only once per year. The 77-year-old woman is retiring in five months. Carandang has ten days to explain himself. Those seem to be of no import. Presidential Spokesman Harry Roque said Duterte is bent on suspending Carandang.

Carandang’s side has been lost in the exchange. His supposed “leak” last Sept. was a press briefing. Reporters had shown him Duterte’s purported bank papers from the Anti-Money Laundering Council, and he merely confirmed them to be similar to Trillanes’. The Duterte-appointed AMLA executive director Mel Racela quickly denied then that the papers came from them. Malacañang pooh-poohed the papers as bogus. If there was no leaked confidential or fake info, what’s all the fuss about? Whatever, Duterte’s newly placed Labor Usec. Jacinto Paras crowed that Carandang’s suspension “vindicates the President from allegations of hidden wealth.” Yet no investigation has moved so far.

A President’s spell over the Ombudsman, SC, and Congress is binding. In 2011 Noynoy Aquino forced unwanted Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to resign or else be impeached. She obeyed, then cried the whole night with her appointer Gloria Arroyo. The following year Aquino got Chief Justice Renato Corona impeached by the House of Reps and convicted by the Senate. Going by public polls then, the case looked convincing. Still, revealed later, Malacañang released a new kind of pork barrel, the P17-billion Disbursement Acceleration program, to ensure Corona’s ouster. Aquino placed as Ombudsman his favorite retiring SC justice, Morales, before whom he had taken his oath of Presidency. Whereupon, Morales went after mostly opposition senators and congressmen who partook of the old pork barrel with super-fixer Janet Lim Napoles. To this day, though, she has avoided indicting Aquino’s aces: DAP concocter budget secretary Florencio Abad, alleged rice imports overpricer agriculture chief Proceso Alcala, and transport head Joseph Abaya who hired inept Liberal Party mates as multibillion-peso maintenance contractors of the MRT-3.

Presidents have learned to avert the fate of Joseph Estrada. Busy boozing, he was impeached for plunder by the House, tried by the Senate with Chief Justice Hilario Davide presiding, arrested and prosecuted by Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo with the SC upholding the sentence.

When Marcelo suddenly resigned, Arroyo put in proven loyalist justice secretary Gutierrez. Gutierrez was her husband Mike’s law school classmate and, foes snickered, fellow bar-exam flunker. Three consecutive years Arroyo’s pork-sated congressmen dismissed impeachments. For good measure, she installed Corona as CJ although barred by the Constitution from any appointing in her last month in office. She got the SC to uphold that unconstitutionality.

Before Estrada and the politically calm Fidel Ramos tenure, Cory Aquino had replaced the Chief Justice and nearly the entire SC, restored congressional pork, and appointed the first Ombudsman. Before her, Ferdinand Marcos replaced Congress with a rubberstamp parliament, along with a pliant Tanodbayan and SC.

Presidents are unsatisfied with immunity from suit while in office. They also must pack the Ombudsman, SC, and Congress with lackeys to watch their back when they step down. Never again will a President be removed or jailed for plunder, betrayal of trust, or treason, no matter how greedy or abusive. So powerful is an ex-President that she can become congresswoman or mayor. Or, he can have the mayor squander P4.2 million to gate up both ends of his street, in spite of metro authorities’ opening of all side roads to ease traffic.

Filipinos will have to live with it or leave. To break the impasse with Morales, Malacañang could simply telephone Carandang to leave. They’ve done it recently, with the Navy chief and the tenured chairwoman of higher education.

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