Give Remulla the benefit of the doubt
As secretary of justice, Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla was the President’s alter ego in dispensing justice in accordance with the goals, mission, and programs of the appointing authority. He is a major part of the executive team charged with the execution and implementation of the Constitution and the laws, especially those involving the delivery of justice. He had no term of office. His stay depended entirely on the trust reposed in him by his boss. In short, he was dependent on, and not independent of, the President.
AFTER HE WAS SWORN TO OFFICE AS THE NEW OMBUDSMAN, Remulla’s umbilical cord to the President was simultaneously cut. Instead, he is mandated by the Constitution to be independent of his former boss. Now, he has a new boss, the Filipino people, whom he is sworn to protect against corruption, misgovernance, and inefficiency. He has a fixed term of office of seven years without reappointment; can be removed only by impeachment; and his compensation cannot be decreased by Congress.
In short, after he took his oath of office before Acting Chief Justice Marvic M. V. F. Leonen last Oct. 9, he became his own man and assumed the role of, to quote the Supreme Court, “the Tribune of the People.”
TRUE TO HIS CALLING, Remulla vowed to be independent, transparent, and accountable. Equally important, he said that his first order of business would be case buildup and the securing of evidence to forestall any “delaying tactics” that hampered cases in the past. Moreover, he vowed, “There are no sacred cows here. So, whoever is involved, even a senator, we’ll make sure to finish the job.”
He reiterated his promise—originally expressed during his interview at the Judicial and Bar Council—to lift the strict restrictions on how to access the statements of assets, liabilities, and net worth (SALNs) of all public officials, and to subject them to lifestyle checks under certain conditions, which would be contained in a memorandum circular he would issue soon.
Well, opening the SALNs to the public is the real intent of the law. It is really a motherhood statement. How limited and reasonable these conditions and restrictions are will define his term. The public will scrutinize them. I will.
The President’s sister, Sen. Imee Marcos, was, however, a nonbeliever, saying, Remulla was a “forced appointment … who is unqualified, has pending cases, and is tainted with injustice.” Other critics denounced him as a political appointee who would “weaponize his independent powers to malign, persecute, and detain the political enemies of the President,” as he had done with former President Rodrigo Duterte and televangelist Apollo Quiboloy.
Senate President Tito Sotto, however, lauded him as “fearless in the search for truth and justice.” Sen. Win Gatchalian, one of the few legislators untainted by the flood control scams, praised him for bringing “extensive knowledge of the country’s major corruption cases and the workings of our justice system.”
AS FOR ME, I would rather not criticize or praise him at this point. I would rather accord him the benefit of the doubt and give him a clean slate to perform his new job without fear or favor. And I would gladly praise and side with him once he issues very limited restrictions on the release of SALNs and conducts strict lifestyle checks. I will hail him if he would, as a leader by example, bare his SALN without much ado.
It is not strange for former secretaries of justice to become truly independent and to perform their new duties with independence, integrity, prudence, competence, and alacrity. A recent example is former Justice Secretary Alfredo Benjamin S. Caguioa, who was loyal to his president but became truly independent after his appointment to the Supreme Court. No one has ever accused him of partisanship.
I think Remulla is well aware of the expectations of him by our Constitution and by our people, and may carry the integrity and excellence set by Caguioa in his new post as Ombudsman. He is fully aware of his place in history, to be remembered with awe and reverence, or to be damned as a villain and betrayer of our people.
Amid a seething disgust in the inordinate delays in the administration of justice, the roundabout investigation of the trillion-peso flood control scam, and the seeming failure of the democratic system to provide immediate relief, Remulla could be the new force, the new hope for the rule of law to flourish again.
I believe that if Remulla, his deputies, and assistants would be transparent, open, and accountable in their investigations, hearings, and gathering of sufficient verifiable evidence, and to speed up the trials in the Sandiganbayan, he could be the hero that our people need and want. He could be the white knight who would rescue us from plunderers and scammers.
In fact, by doing his job well and using his enormous powers and resources adeptly, he could skillfully render irrelevant the Independent Commission for Infrastructure, because his investigators could easily perform the ICI’s duties and functions. In this way, one more layer of the bureaucracy would be eliminated and the controversies hounding the commission and its members would cease.
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