Ombudsman: PH needs strong institutions, not strongmen

Conchita Carpio Morales. INQUIRER PHOTO/LYN RILLON

The country needs strong institutions, not strongmen, according to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, in an apparent swipe at President Duterte.

Two months before her mandatory retirement in July, Morales came out with all guns blazing on Thursday, deploring what she said were attacks on the “people’s first line of defense” against infractions by government officials.

“Let me underscore that great countries do not need strongmen. They need strong institutions. Great men eventually perish, but great institutions outlast them all,” she said in a speech to members of the Integrated Bar of the Philippines in Makati City.

Subjected to ‘threats’

Time magazine put Mr. Duterte on the cover of its recent issue and described him as one of the world’s emerging strongmen.

Morales lamented that the Office of the Ombudsman, in trying to perform its role as an oversight institution, had been subjected to “threats.”

“Threats and intimidations always rear their ugly head along the way, sprouting from both imperfect systems and imperfect personalities,” she said.

Morales said all sectors should help protect the country’s institutions.

Protecting the people

“By protecting great institutions like the Office of the Ombudsman, you are protecting the people,” she added.

Morales said that, by constitutional design, the Ombudsman’s office was created to help the people against infractions by public officials.

“Let us help the [Ombudman] remain a strong and credible institution that would continue to act as the ‘protector of the people,’” she said.

“No single branch can control the entire the government.  No single person could lord it over,” she added.

The Ombudsman also took a shot at a recent Supreme Court ruling that ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno through a quo warranto petition.

Sereno has assailed her ouster as the brainchild of the President, after she supposedly earned his ire. Mr. Duterte has denied any hand in the Supreme Court decision.

The Ombudsman, Morales said, is not under the disciplining authority of the President, and may be removed only by impeachment.