Lawyer: Groups poise to file impeach raps vs Morales

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales during interview at Ramon Magsaysay Center in Manila.
INQUIRER FILE PHOTO / RICHARD A. REYES

Several individuals and organizations are set to file an impeachment complaint next month against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales for her “selective justice, serious misconduct, and gross neglect of duty,” a lawyer said Saturday.

Atty. Manny Luna, chief legal counsel of the Volunteers against Crime and Corruption and the complainants in the impeachment raps against Commission on Elections (Comelec) chief Andres Bautista, said the critics will file the consolidated impeachment raps on November 13.

“We will go all out and we will make known to the public the impeachable offenses committed by the Ombudsman because this is a matter of great public interest,” Luna said during a news forum at Annabel’s Restaurant in Quezon City.

He said his camp has already secured three lawmakers to endorse the complaint and they expect more to back it.

The lawyer said the following would serve as the complainants in the Morales impeachment complaint: families of Special Action Force 44; Tanggulang Demokrasya; Vanguard of the Philippine Constitution; suspended Negros Oriental Governor Roel Degamo; former MRT 3 General Manager Al Vitangcol III; former Biliran Congressman Glenn Chong; and former Negros Oriental Congressman Jacinto Paras, who also filed the impeachment complaint against elections chief Andres Bautista.

Degamo was suspended by the Sandiganbayan on Wednesday while facing trial for the alleged misuse of his province’s calamity funds in 2012.

Vitangcol, on the other hand, faces trial for attempted extortion charges before the Sandiganbayan for allegedly demanding $30 million from Czech company Inekon Group in exchange for bagging the contract to supply train coaches for the MRT-3’s expansion project.

Morales, who has ordered a probe into the First Family’s alleged unexplained wealth, has been repeatedly warned by no less than President Rodrigo Duterte of being impeached for her supposed “selective justice” and for doing nothing on the reports of corruption within her agency.

She, however, stood her ground, saying she got “nothing to fear” and the probe into Duterte and his family’s wealth would continue.

Duterte recently signed Executive Order No. 43 creating the Philippine Anti-Corruption Commission, which is mandated to “directly assist the President in investigating and/or hearing administrative cases primarily involving graft and corruption against all presidential appointees,” including the Ombudsman./jpv

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