Omg, is he joking? North Forbes Park is 120 hectares while South Forbes Park is 130 hectares. That’s a total of 250 hectares. May Fake News Factory ba si Mike Defensor?
Father Mark Rowles is a Catholic priest who went by the "skinheadlad1488" in neo-Nazi telegram chatrooms and described himself as 16yrs old. He has admitted to discussing bombing mosques and shooting Black people in the head. He's been sentenced to a 12-month community order.
Not true. I investigated this myself and also interviewed @TrillanesSonny very bluntly on this matter. Not true at all. Find something else, trolls. Not this.
CAN THE OMBUDSMAN ORDER THE DISMISSAL OF A SENATOR?
I just finished listening to two (2) interviews of Ombudsman Boying Remulla – he states the problem clearly: there is a conflict with the Constitution and the Ombudsman Act, an ordinary law.
I stated this opinion a while back but let me dissect it further now.
Section 13, Article XI of the Constitution states:
“The Office of the Ombudsman shall have the following powers:
Direct the officer concerned to take appropriate action against a public official or employee at fault and recommend his REMOVAL, suspension, demotion, fine, censure, or prosecution and ENSURE COMPLIANCE therewith.”
On the other hand, Republic Act No. 6770 or the Ombudsman Act says that the Ombudsman has disciplinary authority over all government officials except impeachable officers, Members of Congress, and the Judiciary.
I have already forwarded the view before that Section 21 of the Ombudsman Act is partly UNCONSTITUTIONAL or violates the Constitution – the one that exempts Members of Congress from the disciplinary authority of the Ombudsman.
It seems that Ombudsman Boying Remulla is of the same view because he stated in his interview that the reason why he will write a letter to the Senate is to trigger a “justiciable controversy” or simply, a court case.
He wants courts and inevitable the Supreme Court to make a final decision on the matter because otherwise, Remulla argues, what is the meaning of the Ombudsman for if its orders are ignored.
And given that former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales issued the dismissal order before, she likely believes the same that the Ombudsman has disciplinary authority over Senators based on what the Constitution says despite what R.A. No. 6770 says.
I don’t know their specific arguments but in my humble submission, these are the reasons why the Ombudsman has disciplinary authority over Senators and Congressmen:
1. The Constitution empowers the Ombudsman to prosecute ALL government officials and remove any erring official except impeachable officers who are specified by the Constitution as well that they can only be removed by impeachment.
2. The purpose why the Ombudsman was created was to enforce accountability (hence Article XI) and prevent corruption – so any corrupt officer should be under its authority except, again, those exempted by the Constitution.
3. The Constitution does not state that legislators are exempted from the powers of the Ombudsman.
4. The disciplinary authority of Congress over its own members does not cover corruption and removal. What the Constitution grants to Congress is the power to expel a member FOR DISORDERLY BEHAVIOR.
5. The Judiciary is not under the Ombudsman because Section 6 Article VIII specifically says that it is the Supreme Court that has adminstrative supervision over all court personnel.
6. The system of checks and balances in the Constitution empowers the House and the Senate to impeach an Ombudsman.
But who checks and balances Congress? Itself? That cannot be.
And it also cannot be just the people through elections. The purpose of elections is multidimensional – it can be to hold someone accountable and punish a corrupt politician by zeroing his votes but it is more generally about looking for a politician that represents one’s interest or ideology.
And the 3 or 6 years in between elections where corruption and malfeasance can happen, who holds them accountable?
It should be and it is the Ombudsman – who can investigate and prosecute corrupt legislators. And if the Ombudsman can criminally prosecute them, why not administratively discipline them?
At the end of the day, the Supreme Court will decide this legal question.
I am on the side of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and Boying Remulla.
Public office is public trust.
#Accountability
#DismissJoelVillanueva
Today we learned that the Prime Minister of Israel repeatedly raped, choked and beat Virginia Guiffre and the media today won't even say his name or the country he was the Prime Minister of.
It's impossible to hate the media enough.