From Ateneo, a call to defend agencies under Duterte attack

Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin

The president of the Ateneo de Manila University (Admu) rallied support for the Supreme Court, the Office of the Ombudsman and the Commission on Human Rights (CHR) amid attacks by Duterte administration officials.

Fr. Jose Ramon Villarin, S.J., made the appeal in a letter addressed to the Admu community on Friday where he also urged government leaders to “allow full independence” for the three agencies so they can perform their mandates.

Egregious retaliations

“We stand behind these constitutional bodies in their mission to pursue and attain transparency, accountability, truth and justice,” he said.

Villarin also slammed  “egregious retaliatory actions” by the Duterte administration against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales and the CHR.

He called on administration leaders to “[stop] any form of intimidation in the guise of legal action.”

“Legitimate processes are being exploited to undermine and deter these bodies from merely expressing their mandates,” he said.

Impeachment

The university president cited the impeachment complaint lodged against Sereno and the move of the House of Representatives to defund the CHR by approving a P1,000 budget for 2018.

He also referred to President Rodrigo Duterte’s threat to arrest Ombudsman officials and create a commission tasked solely with probing alleged corruption within the office.

“This call to defend our democratic institutions is not even a matter of political partisanship or persuasion,” Villarin stressed. “It is a call that is borne out of our conviction about what is right and just and truly democratic.”