Palace says it’s up to Ombudsman to probe Midas Marquez on WB fund mess

Supreme Court spokesperson Jose Midas Marquez INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

It would be up to the Ombudsman to investigate Supreme Court Administrator Jose Midas Marquez in connection with the alleged irregular use of millions of pesos earmarked for the World Bank-funded Judicial Reform Support Project (JRSP), Malacañang said Thursday.

Undersecretary Abigail Valte, President Benigno Aquino III’s deputy spokesperson, said the World Bank aide memoire on the alleged anomalies in the JRSP listed huge chunks of ineligible expenses incurred by the Office of the Court Administrator.

“We have no hit list. We have an issue with how the funds from the World Bank loan were used as pointed out by the World Bank itself,” Valte said when asked if Marquez, the Supreme Court and Chief Justice Renato Corona’s spokesperson, was next on the administration list of targets for accountability.

Valte said the position of court administrator, although it carries with it the rank of a court justice, was not one of the posts that are subject to impeachment proceedings such as the one Corona is now facing in the Senate.

Asked which office had the mandate to investigate Marquez, Valte said, “That would be the Office of the Ombudsman.”

Pressed if the administration would cause the Ombudsman to investigate Marquez, the deputy spokesperson said, “That will be up to their determination as an independent office.”

Multiple positions

Earlier on Thursday, Secretary Edwin Lacierda, President Aquino’s spokesperson, said the Supreme Court’s alleged mismanagement of a multimillion-peso World Bank loan was a blemish on the Philippines’ image abroad.

“The Supreme Court’s mismanagement of funds, including ineligible expenses approved by spokesperson and Court Administrator Marquez himself—serving as judge, jury and executioner in what is a conflict of interest in holding multiple positions, breaking down barriers that should serve as internal fiscal controls—redounds negatively to the whole country,” Lacierda said.

He said the administration was consistent in its policy of transparency, accountability and prudence in spending public funds. “This is something that we—and the rest of the Filipino people—expect not only from the executive branch, but also from all other independent, coequal branches of government,” he added.