Group outraged over SC recommendation of Martires for Ombudsman

The Group of Evangelical and Catholic theological educators on Wednesday, July 18, expressed outrage over the High Court’s decision to recommend Associate Justice Samuel Martires to become the next ombudsman.

“The appointment of Associate Justice Martires as the next Ombudsman is to besmirch the institution and compromise its independence,” Dr. Annelle Sabanal, the group’s spokesperson, said in a statement.

“To appoint someone with such a history of enduring bias and questionable integrity violates the Constitutional mandate and purposely blurs its vision,” she added.

The group, which earlier filed an opposition to the candidacy of Martires, cited instances where the magistrate decided cases with “suspicious imprudence and blatant prejudice.”

Among these cases, according to Sabanal, was when Martires displayed an “abject lack of respect for religious beliefs” during the oral arguments in the quo warranto case filed against the ousted Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, and his refusal to inhibit himself in the case “despite his clear and obvious bias.”

She also mentioned Martires’s resolution in 2012 that cleared the late strongman Ferdinand Marcos of a P50-billion civil liability.

The spokesperson then cited the magistrate’s approval of a “compromise agreement” which allowed Major General Carlos Garcia, a former military comptroller, to plead guilty to a lesser offense than plunder and to return only half of what he “illegally amassed.”

The Supreme Court’s (SC’s) endorsement, the group further said, “flies in the face of the Constitutional stipulation that the Ombudsman must possess probity and independence.”

On Tuesday, July 17, the high tribunal unanimously voted Martires to the post which will be soon vacated by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales as she will be retiring on July 26.

[READ: SC recommends Martires for ombudsman post]

Supreme Court (SC) Public Information Office head Theodore Te said Martires, the first appointee of President Rodrigo Duterte in the SC, garnered 11 votes out of 12 justices who were present, since Associate Justices Estela Perlas Bernabe and Benjamin Caguioa were not able to attend in the session.

The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) will deliberate on Friday, July 20, on the shortlist of nominees for the ombudsman position which will also be submitted to the President on the same day.