Rody to Ombudsman: Do your job

When it rains, it pours as one popular saying goes. But am not referring to typhoons “Quinta” and “Rolly” that hit Luzon one after the other the past few days. Metaphorically speaking, suspension orders rained down on government agencies and offices just a few hours after the pre-taped address of President Rodrigo Duterte was aired on state-owned PTV-4 Tuesday morning. Let’s call it stormy “Rody.”

Actually the “talk to the people” took place last Monday night (Oct. 26) in Davao City where “stormy Rody” virtually convened anew the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging and Infectious Diseases (IATF-MEID). The “stormy Rody” could not contain his extreme exasperation over pervading bureaucratic red tape despite existing public health emergency crisis spawned by the 2019 coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.

Levity aside, the visibly irate President Duterte expressly displayed his pique over complaints and reports on COVID-related financial aid and fund releases that were unnecessarily prolonged and consequently delayed on urgent public transactions.

“Do away with delay,” the President fumed.

With 20 months left in his term of office, he vows to put an end to such bad habits of bureaucrats by undertaking much sterner Executive actions up to the very last minute of his presidency ending on June 30, 2022. To carry this out, President Duterte gave a carte blanche to Department of Justice (DOJ) Secretary Menardo Guevarra to expand his administration’s anti-graft campaign to include “the entire government.”

As alter-ego of the President, he empowered the DOJ Secretary to administratively suspend the accused government personnel while under investigation. Now dubbed as the “mega” task force on the investigation of corruption complaints, the DOJ-led probe body was first created in August by the President to look into the reported irregularities in the state-run Philippine Health Insurance Corp. (PhilHealth) involving COVID-related reimbursements to hospitals and other health care centers.

While he was Mayor of Davao City, he recalled, his office then immediately endorsed public complaints or reports of irregularities: “Respectfully forwarded to the Ombudsman for immediate action,” as the proper agency to handle the investigation and prosecution of the case.

“Hindi na ako mag – sa akin may imbestigasyon pa tapos administrative, criminal. Doon ka sa Ombudsman, because the Ombudsman can suspend you anytime. With strong reasons, or with weak reasons, that has to be seen but he has that power,” he pointed out.

“Pagka kayong may mga complaint, oras na dumating sa akin ‘yan, diretso na ‘yan sa Ombudsman. Bahala na kayo doon sa buhay ninyo. Because the Ombudsman can order you dismissed, order you – you face charges, criminal or wala,” he warned.

On cue, the Office of the Ombudsman subsequently issued strings of preventive suspension orders against middle bureaucrats in three government agencies in the center of separate corruption scandals. Ombudsman Samuel Martires lost no time to release to the media his signed orders against government personnel in the list of those suspended.

The Ombudsman’s anti-graft net hauled in the biggest number from the Bureau of Immigration (BI) where 44 of its personnel were suspended without pay for the next six months. The 44 BI personnel were implicated in the so-called “pastillas” scam in which they allegedly received sums of bribe money rolled like “pastillas” to facilitate the illegal entry into the country of certain aliens. It was the DOJ-attached National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) that sued them after the Senate public hearings on the “pastillas” scam.

On the same day, six top executives from PhilHealth led by its resigned president and chief executive officer Ricardo Morales received similar suspension orders from the Ombudsman. Likewise, the NBI filed these cases taking off from the public hearings conducted by the Senate Committee of the Whole on the questioned reimbursement done by the PhilHealth on COVID-related claims.

The next day, five officials from the Department of Health (DOH) found themselves similarly suspended for their alleged inaction and non-delivery of COVID-related services.

While finally acting on these complaints, it is still quite unusual that Ombudsman Martires turned media-savvy in the announcement on these strings of preventive suspension orders. But Martires, unlike his distinguished predecessors at Ombudsman, remains adamant not to release copy of the 2019 statement of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALN) of President Duterte.

After he faithfully did so in the past three years of his term, President Duterte is seemingly painted in a box by the incumbent Ombudman’s different interpretations of the provision of the SALN under the Law on the Ethical Standards and Conduct of Public Officials.

Doubly sad, if not frustrating, the Ombudsman and Malacañang pass the buck to each other on repeated media requests for copies of the latest SALN of the President.

In this context, is it not unfair for the Ombudsman to release to media the names of these government personnel who are now unnecessarily exposed already to public ridicule while they should be presumed innocent while still under investigation?

Being a lawyer, once a Tanodbayan anti-graft prosecutor and later as fiscal in Davao City, President Duterte himself expressed his reservations on the fairness of the process of suspension. After all, our country’s Constitution also protects the rights of an accused.

“So in the coming days expect itong suspension not – kasi kung i-suspend kita may duda ako. Hindi ako mag-suspend ng tao na walang kasalanan,” the Chief Executive assuaged.

However, the Chief Executive conceded he must show the government is “not inutile” but has the political will to cut down, if not totally eliminate corruption.

That’s the President’s not so gentle reminder on how Ombudsman Martires should discharge his job.