Philippines’ top antigraft prosecutor retires
MANILA: The Philippines’ top anti- corruption prosecutor, one of the few remaining critics of President Rodrigo Duterte in government, retired yesterday, appealing for ‘strong institutions’ over strong leaders.
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, 77, finishes her sevenyear term during which she earned Duterte’s ire for criticising his brutal drug war and for her office’s investigation into his alleged secret bank accounts.
Duterte, who accused Morales of ‘selective justice’ and conspiring with opposition figures to oust him, last year threatened to have the retired Supreme Court justice impeached while launching tirades against her.
But a defiant Morales dismissed Duterte’s allegations as ‘ fake news’, saying that his threats never intimidated her from doing her job.
“I know I am right in my own work so why should I be scared,” Morales told AFP days before her retirement.
“As long as we have strong institutions, we don’t need strong people to run the government”, she added, emphasising the importance of independent bodies like her office.
Morales, who was appointed by Duterte’s predecessor, Benigno Aquino, in 2011 to head the antigraft watchdog, angered the president when she criticised his pronouncements on killings last year. Their spat intensified last January when Morales defied Duterte’s order to suspend her deputy for allegedly leaking his bank records, saying the president’s directive violated the constitution.
Her agency was then investigating allegations that Duterte failed to disclose 211 million pesos ( US$ 3.9 million) in secret bank accounts when he was a presidential candidate.
The ombudsman said in February it had terminated the probe after the central bank’s Anti-Money Laundering Council refused to cooperate.
“Ombudsman Morales is a significant voice, a strong woman and a person with integrity,” Gladstone Cuarteros, assistant professor of political science at the De La Salle University in Manila, told AFP.