Speaker will not implement Ombudsman dismissal order on Garcia

February 12, 2018

House Speaker Pantaleon Alvarez will not implement the dismissal order of  Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales on Deputy Speaker and Cebu Rep. Gwendolyn Garcia from the service due to grave misconduct.

Alvarez said Monday Morales has no authority  to discipline a member of the House of Representatives.

“My appropriate action is not to implement the order,” Alvarez stressed. “Why? Because there is nothing in the Constitution that allows me to do that. In fact, it is not within the power of the Ombudsman to discipline, much more to remove any member of the House of Representatives."

"If I implement this,  I will be violating the Constitution since the Constitution says we are the only ones who can discipline or remove a member of the House of Representatives,” added Alvarez.

Alvarez said Garcia cannot be dismissed from the service or penalized for acts she had allegedly committed when she was a governor.

"The decision is late. This should have been released when she was still governor," said Alvarez.

House Majority Floor Leader and Ilocos Norte Rep. Rodolfo Fariñas, chairman of the House committee on rules, cited the case of Senator Joel Villanueva whose dismissal from public service by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales over allegedly anomalous use of his P10-million pork barrel allocation when he was still a congressman was set aside by the Senate.

“You have to look at is the case of Joel Villanueva. He was ordered dismissed by the Ombudsman but the Senate did not implement it," said Farinas.

Garcia said she is leaving her fate to the House leadership, but said “the timing is rather suspect” with her active role in the impeachment proceedings against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. DMS