What is going on these days at the Ombudsman?

THE news of the 6-months preventive suspension without pay imposed by Ombudsman Samuel Martires against National Irrigation (NIA) Administrator Benny Antiporda last November 15, 2022, may have died down for now. But the shock and the repercussion it caused on the public’s faith in our justice system in general and to the Ombudsman in particular, continue to reverberate and rattle a lot of people.

For one, the speed by which Martires suspended Antiporda—in a matter of 12 days after receipt of the last administrative anonymous complaint—is certainly fitted to be entered in the Guinness World of Records, since as most observers say, it simply never happened before here and elsewhere. Ever.

It also left a bad taste in the mouth that Antiporda was only furnished a copy of his suspension with the complaints against him not attached to the document, thus ensuring that he would be delayed in filing his appeal. For how can you file an appeal, immediately, when you have no idea what were the complaints against you to begin with?

Granted that what transpired is not an abuse of power and authority by a constitutional office as these are “inherent” in the office, what most people cannot reconcile with is the slowness by which Martires treated the complaints for graft and corruption that Antiporda filed much earlier, in September, against one of his accusers, NIA former legal chief, Atty. Allain Lloyd Cudal.

As you are reading this, Martires is yet to act on that complaint against Cudal where the NIA is to lose some P206 million in an arbitration case that the agency should not have lost at the trial level in the first place.

And yes, the same slowness of action applies to the hundreds and thousands of corruption complaints that remain pending at the Ombudsman until now. They move the way icebergs do: very, very slow.

In other words, it is this perception of unequal application of the justice system – “mayroong tinitingnan at mayroon tinititigan, mayroong ‘napapag-initan, may napapaboran” in our own language—that has rattled a lot of people as such contrasting and very glaring actions by the Ombudsman of Martires do not encourage our people to put their trust in our system of justice.

Although still smarting from the decision, Antiporda also puts it correctly when he said that his experience should open the eyes of our people, especially the anti-corruption crusaders in our midst that, yes, Jose and Maria, cases at the Ombudsman can move fast, very fast even—if the Ombudsman want to.

It is about time that in the fight against graft and corruption, we demand that the Ombudsman act swiftly, firmly, and decisively in all the cases now under its custody in order to show that it is befitting of our trust and confidence.

It is also about time for any brave member of Congress to stand up and question, ‘What the heck is going on there at the Ombudsman?’ Along the way an impeachment proceeding against Martires, if need be, should be looked into for betrayal of public trust.

And yes, Pres. Marcos Jr., too, should take notice that the malodorous smell seeping out of the Ombudsman is a slap in the memory of his illustrious father, Pres. Ferdinand Edralin Marcos Sr., who created the Ombudsman in 1978.

Would he not feel bad that the institution that his father created to showcase the government’s commitment to the rule of law and the elimination of grafters in government is being turned into a separate fiefdom where the whims of one person reign supreme?

And that it is being used to destroy the name and reputation of his own appointee?