Palace: Ombudsman cannot remove Duterte

Malacañang on Sunday said that the Office of the Ombudsman cannot remove President Rodrigo Duterte.

"The President enjoys immunity while in office and the Ombudsman, although she may investigate, [she] cannot discipline or remove a sitting President," Communications Secretary Martin Andanar said in a statement.

Andanar was reacting to Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales' statement that her office's investigation on the plunder and graft complaint filed by Sen. Antonio Trillanes IV last May against Duterte.

"We all know that part of the constitutional mandate of the Ombudsman is to act on complaints against government employees and officials, including the complaint filed by Senator Trillanes against the President when he was still mayor of Davao City," Andanar added.

"However, whether this will become a case against the President is an entirely different matter," he added.

Trillanes' complaints were filed on May 5 — four days before the presidential election, stemming from Duterte's alleged anomalous hiring of more than 11,000 contractual workers in 2014 with the city government spending a total of P708 million. 

Trillanes alleged that the ghost workers were hired even if there was no hiring manual, opening up the employment process to "patronage politics."

The senator also said that his office conducted random validations which confirmed that most of these contractual employees did not render any services.

Aside from the charges filed by Trillanes, Morales on Friday night also hinted the possibility of Duterte being investigated on alleged extrajudicial killings.

"We don't discount any possibility that we'll spare him or indict him. We are talking about possibilities. There are many possibilities," she said.

Morales also said that the Ombudsman may conduct a probe on a person who has immunity from charges, "for purposes of determining whether there's a misconduct," noting that "it can be a basis of impeachment if it amounts to the grounds of impeachment under the constitution." —Jon Viktor D. Cabuenas/ALG, GMA News