THE Office of the Ombudsman has shown its "true color" following its investigation into the alleged hidden wealth of President Rodrigo Duterte.
Presidential Spokesperson Ernesto Abella claimed that the anti-graft body appeared to be lying because of the conflicting remarks issued by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang regarding the copies of bank records of Duterte and his family.
Amid the Ombudsman's probe into Duterte's alleged undeclared wealth, Abella reminded it to practice impartiality and ensure that it would not be used by "interested political parties" to undermine the President.
"The Office of the Ombudsman is showing its true political color. We must remind them that it is an independent, anti-graft body that is supposed to conduct an impartial and fair investigation," Abella said in a press conference.
"It should not play into the hands of those who cannot accept the fact that the President won in the 2016 election. It should not be a party to a demolition job. We have seen this before, this is déjà vu," he added.
Abella's statement came after the President expressed confidence that the "illegally obtained" evidence gathered by the Ombudsman would not be accepted in the proper court.
He also made the statement shortly after lawyers Manuelito Luna and Eligio Mallari filed before the Office of the President an administrative case against Carandang, Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao Rodolfo Elman, and members of the fact-finding investigation team of Ombudsman's office in Mindanao.
Earlier in the day, Luna and Mallari filed an administrative complaint against Carandang and other respondents, urging the Office of the President to remove the Ombudsman's officials from office over alleged "false and malicious" evidence against Duterte.
Morales has assigned Carandang to lead the investigation regarding the President and his family's alleged billions of pesos allegedly amassed from illegal activities and kept in various bank accounts.
Duterte has repeatedly denied that he has ill-gotten wealth and pledged to resign if his critics are able to prove the allegations hurled against him.
The presidential spokesman questioned Carandang’s flip-flopping on Duterte' alleged transactions in his bank accounts jointly owned by his family.
He also hit Morales and Carandang's apparent differing views on handling the complaint hurled against the presidential family.
"Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang, in his statement on October 2, also claimed that he was reading through the document shown to him by the media during an ambush interview in response to media's inquiry on the status of the complaint. These go against the facts," Abella said.
"First, Morales says she has already declared as to the documents in its possession, the office stands by its word. Second, Carandang’s claim is contrary to the earlier statement of the AMLC secretariat that he sent a letter dated 17th of August 2017 to initiate investigations on President Duterte’s alleged bank accounts," he added.
Abella said the two Ombudsman officials' conflicting remarks merely proved that there was a "concerted effort in trying to mispaint the actual situation" concerning the President and his family.
He also alluded that the anti-graft body might be spreading "misinformation" to manipulate the public’s mind.
"This confirms that there is indeed a deliberate effort to discredit the President, mislead the public and to create popular outrage against a duly-elected Chief Executive. The public’s mind seems to be being set," the presidential spokesman said.
'Duterte to divulge bank accounts at the right time'
Despite allegations that Duterte accumulated hidden wealth amounting to billions of pesos, Abella said the President remained open to an investigation on anomalies hurdled against him.
This was Abella’s remark even after Duterte said he would not cooperate with the Ombudsman as they began the probe into his alleged hidden wealth.
Abella clarified that the Chief Executive was simply not willing to submit himself to the jurisdiction of the anti-graft body "at this stage."
"He is not saying that he does not want to be investigated. He's merely saying that he’s not [yet ready to be investigated] at this stage," he said.
The Ombudsman has conducted an investigation in response to Trillanes claimed that Duterte made transactions in his bank accounts that amounted to P2.4 billion from 2006 to 2015.
Trillanes has repeatedly challenged Duterte to sign a waiver allowing his bank records available for public scrutiny.
Duterte, however, has insisted that he already signed a bank waiver, apparently referring to "special power of attorney" granted to Chief Presidential Legal Counsel Salvador Panelo in May 2017 to give him the authority to release documents that would dismiss his supposed hidden wealth.
Quizzed as to when Duterte would disclose his bank accounts, Abella said: “if necessary and at the right time.” (VoxPop Philippines)
