The next ombudsman

In what could be his last hurrah before retirement as ombudsman, Samuel Martires has ordered the filing of graft and falsification charges against former officials of the Procurement Service of the Department of Budget and Management (PS-DBM) and the Department of Education for the purchase of 68,500 allegedly overpriced and outdated laptops worth P2.4 billion.

The laptops, procured as Filipinos were dying en masse of COVID in 2021, were meant for use by public school teachers in the shift to remote learning during the long pandemic lockdown. So the indictments include former education chief Leonor Briones.

Teachers have hailed the indictments, saying the laptop problem added to their burdens in their shift to hybrid learning during the pandemic.

The PS-DBM gained such notoriety during the Duterte administration that there were calls for its abolition. Rodrigo Duterte rejected the calls.

Martires, plucked by Duterte from the Supreme Court to become ombudsman, also gained notoriety for excluding the former president from indictments related to the even bigger pandemic-era corruption scandal involving Pharmally Pharmaceuticals, and for filing cases for the lesser offense of graft rather than plunder.

Also excluded from the charge sheet was the person suspected to have brokered the P12.5-billion sweetheart deal, alleged drug trafficker and former Duterte economic adviser Michael Yang.

In May last year, Martires reversed his original findings and included in the charge sheet Yang’s associate, Chinese citizen Lin Weixiong, who reportedly served as Pharmally’s financial manager. Lin is the husband of Pharmally Biological incorporator Rose Nono Lin, who lost her bid last May for a congressional seat in Quezon City.

Martires’ looming retirement later this month is being greeted with a sigh of relief by those who see him as a protector of crooks in government instead of being a vanguard of transparency and public accountability.

*      *      *

In corruption-tainted administrations, the selection of an ombudsman is seen as an opportunity for the president to install a shield against criminal prosecution upon losing immunity from suit.

This was seen in Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s appointment of Merceditas Gutierrez, the first ombudsman to be impeached, but who avoided possible conviction (and preserved her substantial retirement benefits) by resigning before the trial could start.

Martires performed as expected by his critics, who saw him shielding Duterte from post-presidency prosecution.

This ombudsman will always be remembered for strictly restricting – for the first time since the creation of the anti-graft agency – access to public officials’ statements of assets, liabilities and net worth. And for proposing that the nasties who criticize his SALN policy be put behind bars for up to five years.

Martires also scrapped lifestyle checks and discouraged the public release of audit reports on government agencies.

Under fire from critics early in his term, he said his office should just be abolished, since complainants and witnesses against graft were hard to come by.

He gave this statement while defending the budget of the Office of the Ombudsman before the House. To illustrate, he said despite all the talk about corruption in the Bureau of Customs, no one had come out to file complaints or express willingness to testify.

While his statements drew flak, the concerns he raised also deserve to be addressed, if we want a more efficient ombudsman.

The office can initiate graft probes on its own or motu proprio. But even when the Office of the Ombudsman was still known as the Tanodbayan, the problems of insufficient manpower and logistics were already being raised. The agency needs more investigators, prosecutors and resources to carry out its mandate, considering the enormity of the corruption problem in this country.

Martires sighed at the House budget hearing that there were crooks right in the Office of the Ombudsman – a lament that was bolstered by the agency’s indictment of his overall deputy Warren Rex Liong in connection with the Pharmally scandal, when Liong was the procurement group director of the PS-DBM. We can only guess why Duterte promoted Liong to the deputy ombudsman’s post after that Pharmally deal.

Now Martires is going after former education and PS-DBM officials including resigned PS executive director Lloyd Christopher Lao for the laptop deal. Lao, who is also facing charges in connection with the Pharmally mess, was a volunteer election lawyer of Duterte in the 2016 presidential race.

*      *      *

While the roadblocks cited by Martires are valid, they should serve as a challenge to intensify the anti-graft effort rather than an excuse to shut down the office.

The Office of the Ombudsman is one of the highest-profile agencies in government. Any applicant for ombudsman must be fully aware that the job isn’t a walk in the park. The biggest crooks in government also have the fattest bank accounts to hire top lawyers, plus powerful political clout for fighting prosecution and defending unexplained wealth.

Appointment to the post involves a competitive application process. One doesn’t apply for the job simply for the six-figure monthly retirement pension.

Simeon Marcelo, appointed by Arroyo as ombudsman in the days before her presidency was rocked by a string of corruption (and poll fraud) scandals, resigned after three years because he said the job was giving him sleepless nights and taking a toll on his health. He rejected our jokes at the time that he was simply going through a serious case of andropause.

After his resignation, however, Marcelo continued to serve as the de facto head of the team that successfully prosecuted ousted president Joseph Estrada, who was convicted of plunder in September 2007.

Erap, as we know, was immediately pardoned by Arroyo, so he never set foot inside a prison cell. With his political rights restored, he even became Manila mayor and came close to winning back the presidency.

If this is how the work of the ombudsman ends, you can’t blame Martires for grousing that the office might as well be abolished.

His critics have reminded him that those who can’t stand the heat should get out of the kitchen. Now Martires is finally getting out, leaving people with a fervent wish – that his replacement would be nothing like him.