Run for office? Never, says Ombudsman Morales

As Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales is set to retire in about a month, the opposition  invited the anti-graft chief to join their slate in 2019 even when the 1987 Constitution prohibits this.

Section 11 of Article XI states that the Ombudsman and his or her deputies “shall not be qualified to run for any office in the election immediately succeeding their cessation from office.”

However, even if she was allowed to run, Morales made it clear in a television interview that she is never going to run for public office after serving as Ombudsman for seven years.

Asked if she thinks of entering politics after retiring, the outgoing Ombudsman told CNN Philippines: “No, never.”

While Morales admitted that some people were urging her to run, she said that politics was not a path she would ever take.

“Well, some people are pulling my leg,” Morales said over CNN Philippines. “But politics is not for me.”

Morales was appointed to the Office of the Ombudsman by former President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III in 2011.

Prior to her appointment as anti-graft chief, Morales had served as a Supreme Court Associate Justice from 2002 to 2011 upon appointment by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. /vvp