Palace: Deputy Ombudsman Carandang going against facts

 The Office of the Ombudsman has issued conflicting statements on its probe into the alleged multi-billion wealth of the President Rodrigo Duterte and his family, Malacañang said Tuesday.

In a briefing, presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella said that the Office of the Ombudsman was “being economical with the truth” when it said it claimed that it observed confidentiality in its investigation of Senator Antonio Trillanes IV’s complaint against Duterte.

Ombudsman probe

Earlier, in August, Trillanes claimed that the Office of the Ombudsman was already in possession of Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC) records regarding Duterte's alleged flagged bank transactions in various bank accounts involving P2 billion in deposits and credits.

On September 27, the Office of the Ombudsman announced that it has started its probe into the Duterte family's wealth, saying it has found sufficient basis in Trillanes' complaint.

In announcing the investigation, Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang said he had been authorized by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales to conduct the investigation, as she had recused herself. He added that he requested the AMLC for a final validation on the bank transaction records of the first family.

On September 28, Carandang said that documents turned over to it by the AMLC showing the Dutertes' bank transaction records were similar to those gathered by Senator Antonio Trillanes IV.

The AMLC, however, denied that it provided the Ombudsman with documents relating to its investigation of Duterte's alleged billion-peso bank accounts.

Carandang later put out a statement saying that he had been "reading through the documents shown to him by the media during the ambush interview, in response to media's inquiry on the status of the complaint after more than a year after its filing and in stating that a request was made to AMLC as part of the investigative process."

“These go against the facts,” Abella said about Carandang's statement.

Abella said that Carandang's claim was contrary to the earlier statement of the Anti-Money Laundering Council Secretariat that he sent a letter dated August 17 to initiate an investigation into Duterte's alleged bank accounts.

“What all this confirms is that there is indeed a deliberate effort to discredit the President, mislead the public, and to create popular outrage against the duly elected Chief Executive. The public’s mind seems to be being set,” Abella said.

He told the Ombudsman’s office that it should not play into the hands of those who could not accept that Duterte won the presidency.

“The Office of the Ombudsman is showing its true political color. We must remind them that it is an independent and anti-graft body that is supposed to conduct an impartial and fair investigation,” he added.

“It should not be party to a demolition job. We have seen this before. This is déjà vu,” Abella said.