TWO lawyers who previously filed an administrative complaint against Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang has filed a manifestation before the Office of the President, urging it to enforce "necessary and reasonable force" to implement the 90-day preventive suspension against the anti-graft official.
In a manifestation filed Friday, February 23, lawyers Manuelito Luna and Eligio Mallari asked Malacañang to "bodily or physically remove" Carandang from office.
The two recommended that the executive branch deploy a group of enforcers in the vicinity of the Ombudsman building in Diliman, Quezon City to block Carandang.
Their appeal was made after the Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales defied the Office of the Executive Secretary's order in January to suspend Carandang for a period of 90 days.
"It is respectfully prayed of the honorable office to cause respondent Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur H. Carandang to be bodily or physically removed from office or restrained from the exercise thereof (for a period of 90 days counted from date of actual suspension), through the use of necessary and reasonable force," they said.
"To prevent Carandang from returning to his office and make a mockery of the process, contingents of enforcers may be stationed at or near the entry and exit points of the Ombudsman Building, Agham Road, North Triangle, Diliman, Quezon City, and empowered to prevent such from happening," they added.
On January 29, Malacañang announced that Carandang has been charged and ordered suspended for grave misconduct and grave dishonesty. The decision against Carandang stemmed from the administrative complaint filed by Luna and Mallari in October 2017.
Carandang, who led the investigation into President Rodrigo Duterte and his family's alleged ill-gotten wealth, was found liable for "misuse of confidential information and disclosure of information" with regard to the presidential family's bank records.
Carandang had revealed that he was able to secure copies of Duterte's bank accounts from the Anti-Money Laundering Council. Malacañang said the documents were "not authenticated" since the country's financial intelligence unit had denied being the source of information.
Carpio-Morales, in refusing to enforce the suspension of Carandang, said it violates the Supreme Court's 2014 ruling that invalidates the President's power to remove a deputy ombudsman from office.
Malacañang , however, had stressed that Duterte, as a chief implementor of the law, is bent on imposing his disciplinary power over Carandang. (VoxPop Philippines)
