On Valentine’s Day, Deputy Speaker Gwen F. Garcia had a privilege speech at the Plenary Hall of the House of Representatives not just for her personal defense but to educate those congressmen who, like Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, are ignorant of the very law that rules the very agency that she heads.
But let me reprint what Rep. Gwen said was the reason for making her privilege speech: “Last night, however, I read on my feed that a distinguished colleague of ours, Representative Edcel Lagman, publicly disagreed with the Speaker. Representative Lagman said, referring to the Speaker: ‘I don’t know what Constitution he is referring to.’ Representative Lagman insisted that the Speaker enforce the decision of the Ombudsman, citing, according to the news report, “the Ombudsman’s law”, which, he said “is clear with respect to the implementation of the decisions of the Ombudsman even pending motion for reconsideration.”
Of course, Mr. Lagman had to say something against the majority members because he is in the minority. But more important for him, he too is facing graft and corruption charges and if the Office of the Ombudsman sanctions or even dismisses him I’ll bet that he will seek the assistance of the House Speaker to save his neck.
As we wrote in this column yesterday, I was able to read the Ombudsman’s Law that Congress enacted on Nov. 17, 1989, notably Section 21 of Republic Act. No. 6770 which states, “Officials Subject to Disciplinary Authority: Exceptions - The Office of the Ombudsman shall have disciplinary authority over all elective and appointive officials of the Government and its subdivisions, instrumentalities and agencies, including Members of the Cabinet, local government, government-owned or controlled corporations and their subsidiaries, except over officials who may be removed only by impeachment or over Members of Congress and the Judiciary.”
To you folks who hate Garcia I’m sure that you must be terribly disappointed that the members of Congress are exempted from disciplinary action by the Office of the Ombudsman. But the greater sin in my book is that the Ombudsman has only shown her ignorance of the very laws that govern her office. I have written many columns against the Ombudsman for her selective justice, but this issue takes the cake for it is ignorance of the law that we are accusing her of!
No doubt, she is using the media to crucify Garcia because as she herself told me the other day, she or her office has not received the order of dismissal from the Office of the Ombudsman. So why is this news out in the open? It can only mean this order was released to the media by the Ombudsman herself.
Again, I’d like to reiterate that Congress work on the impeachment of the Ombudsman for her selective justice. Remember how quickly she cleared former president Benigno “PNoy” Aquino during the investigation of the Mamasapano massacre? Yet today, the former president is facing the same investigation which gives you an idea of how “protective” she is of her appointing authority.
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When Pres. Rodrigo “Digong” Duterte was speaking at the Vicente Sotto Memorial Medical Center, he talked about the problems plaguing the vacation island of Boracay and the president threatened to shut down Boracay Island, which he called a “cesspool” following reports that thousands of establishments there have no proper sewage treatment facilities and are directly discharging their untreated sewage into the sea.
In truth, one of the last times I visited Boracay was during the term of former president Fidel Ramos and Boracay was hit by an e. coli problem because most of the establishments there had no sewage built into their structures and opted to throw this waste into the sea. I mistakenly thought that Boracay had solved its sewage problems.
During the visit of Senator Joseph Victor “JV” Ejercito he said: “The island is already being suffocated, imagine the number of people visiting it during peak season, almost a million, I think. I believe those public establishments that are found guilty of not following environmental laws and that caused the deteriorating situation of Boracay have to be charged as well as local officials.”
Boracay is like the rest of the Philippine cities, growing without responsibility for the health of its people.
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For email responses to this article, write to vsbobita@gmail.com. His columns can be accessed through www.philstar.com.