Palace: Ombudsman Martires is untainted by corruption

Ombudsman Samuel Martires is untainted by corruption, Malacañang said on Friday, a day after President Rodrigo Duterte appointed him as the country’s top graft buster.

“Wala pong bahid ng kahit anong eskandalo ang kanyang buhay,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in an interview  with dzRH, referring to Martires.

Martires, a former Supreme Court Associate Justice and a schoolmate of Duterte at the San Beda University College of Law, replaced Conchita Carpio Morales who retired on Thursday after completing a full term of seven years as Ombudsman.

Roque also hailed the appointment of Martires saying that the Ombudsman is a “luminary” in the legal profession.

“Hinahangaan ko talaga siya, dahil siya naman po talaga ay bihasa sa batas at talaga namang nire-recognize bilang isang legal luminary sa aming mga abogado,” he said.

Martires, who also served as a Sandiganbayan justice, was included in the three-person shortlist for the Ombudsman position, along with retired SC Presiding Justice and current Special Prosecutor Edilberto Sandoval and lawyer Felito Ramirez.

“Well, importante po kasi na iyong itinatalaga natin sa mga matataas na posisyon ay walang bahid na iskandalo at korapsyon. Dahil kinakailangan lahat ng mga appointees ni Pangulo ay magsilbing halimbawa sa lahat ng ating mga kababayan. Talagang kinakailangan maging tapat, maging magiliw sa panunugkulan,” Roque said.

The President, in a speech in Zamboanga City on Thursday, called Martires a “bright and “a fair man.”

READ: Associate Justice Samuel Martires is new Ombudsman

Before being appointed to the Sandiganbayan by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in 2005, Martires was a trial court judge in Agoo, La Union.

In 2011, he penned the Sandiganbayan decision that junked the graft charges filed against the President when he was Davao City mayor.

In 2012, Martires also penned the Sandiganbayan ruling that dismissed a P50 million damage suit filed against the Marcoses, then Trade Minister Roberto Ongpin and the late Armed Forces Chief Fabian Ver over the so-called Binondo Central Bank during Martial Law.

A year after, he signed a resolution that upheld the plea bargain deal with then military comptroller Major General Carlos Garcia.

In December 2017, he voted in favor for martial law in Mindanao. With a report from Syrah Vivien Inocencio, INQUIRER.net intern /muf