PRESIDENT Rodrigo Duterte on Thursday issued an executive order creating a fact-finding body investigating allegations of corruption among all presidential appointees–including the Ombudsman and the Chief Justice herself.
In his Executive Order No. 43, signed on Oct. 4 but was made available to the public Thursday, the newly formed Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission shall directly assist the President in investigating and/or hearing administrative cases primarily involving graft and corruption cases against presidential appointees.
Upon the instructions of the President or motu propio—on his own inmitiative and personally signed by him—the Commission may investigate presidential appointees in the military, police and conduct “lifestyle checks” even those outside the Executive Branch who are accused of violating the Constitution, or contrary to law, and/or constitute misconduct tantamount to betrayal of public trust.
While the President, as appointing authority, is not prohibited by law or by the Constitution to conduct lifestyle checks on his own appointees, Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea said “he will not usurp the power to discipline certain independent constitutional officers such as the Ombudsman and judicial officials.”
“The President may conduct inquiries on all his appointees, and submit his findings to the proper disciplining authority [e.g. to Congress, for possible impeachment],” Medialdea told reporters in a message.
The resignation or retirement of any public officer under investigation “shall not divest the Commission of jurisdiction to continue the investigation or hearing thereof,” the EO stated.
The President directed the creation of the fact-finding body a week after threatening to investigate the alleged corruption in the Office of the Ombudsman, and vowed that he himself would file impeachment raps against anti-graft chief Conchita Carpio-Morales and Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno.
In the exercise of its functions, the PACC may engage the help of any law enforcement agency and other government instrumentalities to conduct a fact-finding investigation, the EO said.
“There is a need to create a separate commission under the Office of the President solely dedicated to providing assistance to the President in the investigation and hearing of administrative cases and complaints, and in the conduct of lifestyle checks and/or fact-finding inquiries concerning presidential appointees and other public officers allegedly involved in graft and corrupt practices,” Duterte’s executive order read.
The PACC includes the ability to recommend to the President the issuance of a preventive suspension order, power to administer oaths and issue subpoenas, and endorse vital witnesses into the Witness Protection Program.
The Commission, which will be placed under the Office of the President, shall be composed of a chairman and four commissioners appointed by the President, the majority of whom must be Philippine Bar members and have been practicing law for at least five years.
The PACC will also have a secretariat, to be headed by an executive director, who will provide technical and administrative support to the Commission. The personnel of the Secretariat will be appointed by the PACC chairman.
In 2010, then President Benigno Aquino III abolished a similar commission, the defunct Presidential Anti-Graft Commission, and transferred its functions to the Office of the Deputy Executive Secretary for Legal Affairs.
On Wednesday, Duterte said he himself would be filing impeachment raps against Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Supreme Court Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno, blaming the two for allowing themselves to be used as pawns to throw him off the Presidency.
Citing “selective justice” and the “use of falsified documents” as grounds for impeachment against Morales, Duterte will let the impeachment raps against her in-law proceed, even if this means presenting his bank records to prove that she had falsified documents.