posted July 29, 2018 at 12:50 am by Maricel Cruz

Lawmakers on Saturday appealed to critics of newly- appointed Ombudsman Samuel Martires to give him a chance to do his job.

“Justice Martires has a very tough mission ahead of him. Let’s give him the chance to do his job,” Buhay Party-list Rep. Lito Atienza said.

“Our impression of the new Ombudsman is that he is a fair-minded person who will uphold the law without bias or prejudice,” Atienza added.

Administration and Negros Occidental Rep. Albee Benitez echoed Atienza’s view.

“Justice Martires’ appointment as the new Ombudsman is a good choice. He is a man of integrity,” said Benitez, chairman of the House committee on housing and urban development.

Parañaque City Rep. Gus Tambunting, meanwhile, is upbeat on Martires’ appointment to the position that was recently vacated by Ombudsman Conchita Morales.
“I would take a page from former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, who earlier said that Ombudsman Martires deserves a chance to prove himself. His record as a judge and Justice is self-evident. But he deserves to be allowed to show what he can do,” Tambunting said.

But for the opposition and Akbayan party-list Rep. Martires’ appointment was “eerily unpleasant and disturbing in the fight against corruption.”

“If we go by Ombudsman Martires’ track record, he made decisions that favored the powers that be who are now his benefactors. Such decisions have raised suspicions on where his allegiance lies or whether he can be independent to render fair and impartial justice,” Villarin said.

“If Martires wants to prove his detractors wrong and convert the non-believers, his first move is to declare his independence and cut off ties with whoever he owes a debt of gratitude. As former Ombudsman Carpio Morales said, ‘make the impossible possible’,” he added.

Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, however, said that Martires “must be lauded for his commitment” to make the Office of the Ombudsman independent from any political influence.”

“Only time would tell on the seriousness and efficacy of Martires’ commitment as he is urged not to repeat past controversial decisions, as a Justice of the Sandiganbayan and the Supreme Court, which were perceived to have favored the powers-that-be,” Lagman, also an oppositionist, added.

Detractors earlier panned Martires for his perceived lack of independence, on account of his previous decisions when he was an associate justice of the Sandiganbayan and later, the Supreme Court.

Atienza said he is counting on Martires “to do what is right,” as President Duterte asked him to.

“But of course we are also aware that, as Albert Einstein put it, what is right is not always popular and what is popular is not always right,” Atienza said.

The Constitution mandates the Ombudsman “to investigate on its own, or on complaint by any person, any act or omission of any public official, employee, office or agency when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper, or inefficient.”

Based on congressional records, Atienza said the Ombudsman receives around 9,000 new criminal and administrative complaints against wayward officials every year.

The records also show that in 2017 alone, the Ombudsman filed 2,447 indictments or formal charges against errant officials before the Sandiganbayan, docketed 3,153 fact-finding cases and received 30,917 requests for assistance.

Malacañang designated Martires as the country’s seventh Ombudsman on July 26, replacing Carpio-Morales who completed her seven-year term on the same day.
Martires, 69, was President Duterte’s first appointee as the associate justice of the Supreme Court.