Batacan as next Ombudsman? God forbid, says Morales
“God forbid!”
Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales has opposed the bid of President Duterte’s lawyer, Edna Batacan, to take over her position when she retires.
Morales said Batacan dug “her own grave” during her interview with the Judicial and Bar Council last June 20 when she openly admitted to paying investigators a P50,000 bribe to drive home her point that the Office of the Ombudsman was corrupt.
“She was a participant [in] the payoff… If you are party to corruption, you are corrupt yourself,” she said in an interview with ABS-CBN News Channel’s talk show Headstart on Monday.
‘You be the judge’
“You have to have competence. You have to have honesty. You have to have industry. If she has all these, go ahead please. But, by all indications, my God! Look at her interview—you be the judge,” Morales added.
She also noted lawyer Ferdinand Topacio’s allegation that Batacan demanded P8 million from a mutual client to arrange the dismissal of his case before the Ombudsman.
High-profile clients
Topacio did not identify the client, but he and Batacan served as counsels of former first gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo in the case of the scuttled $329-million National Broadband Network deal with China’s ZTE Corp.
The Ombudsman still brought the case to the Sandiganbayan, but the court acquitted Arroyo in August 2016.
Batacan secured the acquittal of two other high-profile clients—alleged pork barrel scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles and Mr. Duterte himself.
Napoles had faced corruption charges in connection with the military’s P3.8-million Kevlar helmet case, and Mr. Duterte fought the same charges over a Davao City canal project.
Morales, whose term would end on July 25, cautioned Mr. Duterte against appointing his lawyer to be the Ombudsman.
“That’s his lookout. He will be judged by the people,” she said.