The Office of the Ombudsman will pursue the investigation of the plunder complaint filed by Senator Antonio Trillanes against President-elect Rodrigo Duterte even if the mayor gains immunity from suit.
“Well if the complaint is meritorious then like in the case of (the late former Chief Justice Renato) Corona, he is an impeachable official but just the same, the Office investigated the case because under the law, the ombudsman will still continue investigating an impeachable officer only for the purpose of determining whether gross or grave misconduct has been committed. If in the affirmative, then the Office of the Ombudsman will forward its findings to Congress for it to consider initiating impeachment proceedings,” Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales told reporters on Thursday. Trillanes filed the complaint as he accused Duterte of plunder, graft, malversation and breach of conduct for the hiring of 11,000 contractual workers in 2014 by Davao City.
Morales said that she will recuse herself from the case because the husband of Duterte’s daughter Sara, Mans Carpio, is the son of Morales’ brother, Lucas Carpio and Court of Appeals Justice Agnes Reyes Carpio.
“I have inhibited in cases involving the Dutertes. Involving Sara, involving presumptive president-elect Duterte.
Even before he became a presumptive president-elect I have already inhibited in the cases involving them,” she said.