Labor Secretary Silvestre Bello III has applied to head the Office of the Ombudsman to replace Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, who is set to retire on July 26.
Bello joins the list of applicants who wants to take over the Ombudsman, as they were beating the May 15 deadline of submission of application with the Judicial and Bar Council.
Also joining the short list for the Ombudsman post are former Sandiganbayan presiding justice Edilberto Sandoval and lawyer Edna Batacan, who lawyered for President Rodrigo Duterte in his several cases in Davao City and Sandiganbayan, and former first gentleman Mike Arroyo and his wife, ex-President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Arroyo.
Supreme Court Associate Justice Teresita de Castro was earlier nominated by her colleague, Associate Justice Arturo Brion, to replace Morales.
Sandoval, who was appointed by the President in 2016, is now the chief of the Ombudsman’s Office of the Special Prosecutor.
Batacan is a San Beda College law graduate, just like the President.
Solicitor General Jose Calida was believed to be interested in the position, but as of press time, there was still no report that he filed an application with the JBC.
As this developed, the JBC has closed the nomination for the position of the Ombudsman.
Aside from De Castro, also on the list of applicants for the post include Justice Presbitero Velasco Jr., who like De Castro, will be retiring from the judiciary in August.
Velasco was nominated by Integrated Bar of the Philippines national president Abdiel Dan Elijah Fajardo.
De Castro has reportedly declined the nomination, while Velasco has yet to decide as of yesterday afternoon.
The two other nominees are Davao City Regional Trial Court judges Carlos Espero II and Rowen Apao-Adlawan and Duterte’s law school classmate Rex Rico.
A source said that House majority floor leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas and Solicitor General Jose Calida also did not accept their respective nominations for the post.
Morales, 76, is also a retired SC justice who was appointed by former president Benigno Aquino III as Ombudsman in 2011.
She succeeded Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, who resigned on May 6, 2011 from the post to avoid an impeachment trial in the Senate, leaving an unexpired term until Nov. 30, 2012.
Earlier, the SC dismissed petitions seeking to remove Morales from her post for alleged overstaying.
The justices voted unanimously to dismiss the petitions filed last year by former Metro Rail Transit Line 3 general manager Al Vitangcol and lawyer Rey Nathaniel Ifurung for lack of merit.
The SC found no basis in the prayer of petitioners to declare that the term of office of Morales had expired on Nov. 30, 2012.
It held that Article XI, Sec. 11 of the 1986 Constitution, Secs. 7 and 8(3) of Republic Act No. 6770 provides for a full term of seven years for the Ombudsman.
