MANILA — Malacañang on Wednesday recognized the power the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate cases involving public officials, including the alleged ill-gotten wealth of resigned Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, the son of President Rodrigo R. Duterte.
“The Office of the Ombudsman has the power to investigate on its own and initiate proper action against public officers,” Presidential Spokesperson Harry Roque said in a statement sent to media.
“We see this as part of the Ombudsman’s constitutional mandate to ensure public accountability,” he added.
The scope of the Ombudsman’s powers is to investigate, to inquire into and to demand the production of documents involving transactions and contracts of the government where there is disbursement of public funds.
Roque made this remark after Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales bared that the resigned vice mayor is still the subject of her office’s preliminary investigation.
Morales, however, reiterated that she has inhibited from cases involving the First Family because her nephew, lawyer Manases Carpio, is the son-in-law of President Duterte. Carpio is married to Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte.
In December, Paolo resigned after being dragged into the controversial smuggling of PHP6.4 billion worth of shabu at the Bureau of Customs and a public squabble with his teenage daughter, Isabelle.
The resigned vice mayor is facing a number of cases including graft, forfeiture, perjury, among others. (Azer Parrocha/PNA)
