It’s rather disconcerting to see Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol rail against former Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez especially on the day before his scheduled interview with the Judicial Bar Council (JBC).
The interview was part of his application for the Ombudsman job vacated by his former boss, whose unpopularity had drawn a groundswell of support for her ouster and caused her unceremonious resignation early this year.
Part of Apostol’s beef was that Gutierrez would often supposedly bypass him in calling for meetings in favor of his subordinate, Asst. Ombudsman for the Visayas Virginia Santiago, who declined to comment on his allegation.
Aside from the snub, which carried over to the selection of key personnel in the anti-graft office around the country, Apostol also complained about the lack of benefits specifically the absence of a government-issued car.
The car was a sore point since Apostol complained about being the subject of a malicious rumor in which he supposedly used the vehicle for unofficial purposes so to speak, a charge he vehemently denied.
We don’t exactly know whether Apostol spoke out against Gutierrez during her tenure as Ombudsman at the start of President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s tenure but we do know that for the most part he tried defending the slow pace in the resolution of graft cases involving top Cebu officials particularly Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn Garcia.
Apostol’s excuse was that Gutierrez’s policy involved sending all top tier graft cases involving governors and mayors to the central office for resolution, a policy he wasn’t too vocal against until only recently when he was scheduled for interview in relation to the Ombudsman post by the JBC.
Self-serving? There is some debate there but Apostol’s reluctance to speak out against his former top boss at the time of her tenure may be understandable owing to her close ties with the much-maligned Arroyo administration at the time.
What raises question marks was his continued reluctance to speak out against Gutierrez upon the start of Aquino’s presidency in which the President called on her to resign.
His explanation was that the Ombudsman is united in supporting Gutierrez despite her many questionable decisions, including entering into a plea bargain agreement with former army comptroller Carlos Garcia.
Now that she left, Apostol is out trouncing Gutierrez in public while grooming himself as her replacement. Sorry, but the post of Ombudsman calls for top level independence which requires applicants to speak out and immediately resolve cases against anyone accused of corruption, including the President who appointed him or her in the first place.
Apostol’s silence and his eventual diatribes against Gutierrez doesn’t speak of independence. There’s an expression for it: kicking someone when they’re down and out.