Ombudsman Morales to Junjun Binay: ‘We won’t tolerate mob rule’
MAKATI Mayor Junjun Binay on Tuesday got a dressing down from Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, who maintained that the body she heads is independent and will not tolerate the Makati local chief executive’s “mob rule.”
Morales, a former Associate Justice, was apparently referring to the standoff at the Makati City Hall where Mayor Binay was holed up behind his barricade of supporters who had a violent encounter with the police.
In a strongly worded statement, Morales said Mayor Binay should uphold himself to the highest standards of the law as an elected public official to respect the six-month preventive suspension order as he faces administrative charges of grave misconduct, dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best interest of the service, in connection with the alleged overprice of the P1.349 billion Makati Science High School building.
“The Office of the Ombudsman is independent and performs its mandate according to law and the evidence. It will never succumb to any perceived pressure or be blinded or deafened by political grandstanding,” Morales said.
“It will not tolerate open defiance of constitutional processes or calls for mob rule. This is about the right of the Filipino people to hold their public servants to the highest bar of accountability and to bring them before the bar of justice of they are accused of betraying the public trust,” she added.
Morales maintained that the preventive suspension order is not a penalty and is only meant to protect the preliminary investigation being conducted by the Ombudsman over the alleged overpriced Makati City Hall Building II and the Makati Science High School Building that involved Mayor Binay and his father Vice President Jejomar Binay when he was mayor.
“Public office is a public trust. No official, from the lowest to the highest, is exempt from accountability. When the Office of the Ombudsman, in accordance with its Constitutional mandate, finds compelling grounds to issue a preventive suspension order, it will do so,” Morales said.
“Preventive suspension is not punitive as it is preventive in nature meant to protect the integrity of the investigation process. Public interest requires that those in positions of power and authority do not have the opportunity to tamper with public documents and harass witnesses to frustrate the ends of justice,” she added.
The Binay camp refused to receive a copy of the preventive suspension order. The standoff escalated on Tuesday when some of Binay’s supporters threw monobloc chairs at the police barricade surrounding the city hall.
Even Vice President Jejomar Binay joined in the conflict when he allegedly confronted Senior Superintendent Elmer Jamias when the latter blocked him and some supporters from entering the city hall on Monday night.
Jamias, who said he would file charges of physical injury, direct assault on a person of authority, oral defamation and grave threat against the Vice President, said Binay allegedly badmouthed him and collared Chief Inspector Gideon Ginez for purportedly pushing away Aida Dizon, the sister of his wife Dr. Elenita Binay, when she tried to enter the City Hall. Ginez denied Binay’s claim.
According to the special panel of Ombudsman investigators, Mayor Binay and 14 others “mutually aided one another” in the rigging of the procurement and award of the P17.3 million contract for the architectural design and engineering services to favored pre-selected bidder Infiniti Architectural Works from 2007 to 2008.
The respondents were also accused of rigging the contract of another favored bidder, Hilmarc’s Construction Corp., for six phases of construction from 2007 to 2014 involving the amounts of P99.631 million, P174.508 million, P149.504 million, P394.140 million, P349.559 million, and P165.264 million, respectively.
Republic Act 6770 or the Ombudsman Act gives the Ombudsman powers to suspend a public official over administrative charges if the evidence of guilt is strong, and the charges against the official involve dishonesty, oppression or grave misconduct or neglect in performance of duty
The Ombudsman can also preventively suspend an official for six months to prevent an official from using his or her position to thwart the probe.
The Ombudsman had already preventively suspended Mayor Binay on the separate charges of overprice in the Makati City Hall Building II on March 11 but this was later stalled by the Court of Appeals.
The issue on whether or not the Ombudsman can suspend a reelected official is now pending before the Supreme Court. Mayor Binay’s lawyers had cited the Supreme Court ruling, which institutionalized the Aguinaldo doctrine, which states that an official may be condoned from charges involving his or her past term following his or her reelection.
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