SUPREME Court Associate Justice Samuel Martires and Sandiganbayan Justice Efren dela Cruz have also applied to take over the Office of the Ombudsman once Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales retires on July 26.
The two aside, Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III, lawyer Edna Batacan”•she represented then Davao City mayor Rodrigo Duterte in some suits”•and the Ombudsman’s Office of the Special Prosecutor chief Edilberto Sandoval, a former Sandiganbayan presiding justice, have also applied for the position.
Bello on Tuesday said he had asked Duterte to make him the next Ombudsman.
“I kept telling the President that his crusade is against corruption, so I told him I would help him,” Bello told dzMM radio.
“He said ‘How?’ And I told him to appoint me as Ombudsman.”
The others who have applied for the position of Ombudsman are Judge Carlos Espero II and lawyers Rey Nathaniel Ifurung, who earlier filed a petition seeking the ouster of Morales; Rainier Madrid, who had lawyered for former-Davao City vice mayor Paolo Duterte; Rex Rico of the Rico & Associates Lawyers, and Felito Ramirez, who ranked seventh in the 1972 bar examination.
Like Duterte, Martires, Batacan and Ramirez graduated from the San Beda College of Law.
Martires was believed to have been nominated by retired Supreme Court justice Jose Perez, while Bello filed his application with the Judicial and Bar Council.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Arturo Brion endorsed the nomination of fellow Associate Justice Teresita de Castro to replace Morales.
De Castro, however, declined the nomination, saying she wanted to stay with the Supreme Court until her retirement in October.
The JBC has set a May 15 deadline for the submission of applications for the position of Ombudsman.