PCIJ’s Mangahas denies Martires’ accusation of ‘unethical behavior’

MANILA, Philippines – Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) Director Malou Mangahas on Wednesday denied Ombudsman Samuel Martires’ accusation of unethical behavior.

This comes after Martires criticized Mangahas for using in an article a casual conversation between the two supposedly without the former’s consent.

“Ombudsman Martires knew that as a public official with expertise and mandate on the issues raised, he was speaking face to face with a journalist with a legitimate journalistic purpose, on a matter of public interest,” said Mangahas in a statement.

The conversation in question happened at an anti-corruption forum held last December 9 by the Office of the Ombudsman’s Public Information and Media Relations Bureau.

Mangahas, in a chance interview outside the conference venue, asked Martires about President Rodrigo Duterte’s Statement of Assets, Liabilities, and Net Worth (SALN) and the new guidelines from the Ombudsman regarding the release of SALNs.

“The conversation occurred in a public space and even with the full knowledge and in full view of his own personnel from the Office of the Ombudsman,” she added.

Martires earlier said that he was only answering the journalist’s questions in jest. “While I was walking back to the conference hall, she continued to ask questions that I answered jokingly,” he said in Filipino.

According to Mangahas, the PCIJ had filed several written requests and made multiple phone calls to the Office of the Ombudsman to follow up on their request for the SALN of President Duterte for 2018.

All requests, she added, “were all denied, or yielded no positive action.”

“All he has to do now is release President Duterte’s SALN for 2018, pending the long-awaited issuance of his new guidelines,” said Mangahas.