JBC opens application, recommendation to post of Ombudsman
The Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) announced the opening for application and recommendation to the post of Ombudsman Samuel R. Martires whose term will expire on July 27, 2025.
Online applications and recommendations can be submitted to the JBC Online Registration and Application System (JBC O.R.A.S.) through its judicial platform www.portal.judiciary.gov.ph until 4:30 p.m. on July 4.
The JBC’s announcement was published in the May 20 issue of the Manila Bulletin. It was signed by JBC Ex-Officio Secretary and Supreme Court (SC) Clerk of Court Marife M. Lomibao-Cuevas.
The JBC is a constitutional office that accepts, screens, and nominates appointments in the judiciary; the Office of the Ombudsman and its deputies and special prosecutor; and members of the Legal Education Board. It is headed by Chief Justice Alexander G. Gesmundo as ex-officio chairperson.
Martires was appointed Ombudsman on July 26, 2018 by then president Rodrigo Duterte after the former’s early retirement was approved by the SC.
Before his SC stint, he also served as associate justice of the Sandiganbayan and as judge of the regional trial court (RTC).
The Office of the Ombudsman (OMB) was created in 1989 under Republic Act No. 6770.
Under RA 6770, among the OMB’s functions are “to investigate and prosecute on its own or on complaint by any person, any act or omission of any public officer or employee, office or agency, when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient.”
The OMB “has primary jurisdiction over cases cognizable by the Sandiganbayan and, in the exercise of his primary jurisdiction, it may take over, at any stage, from any investigatory agency of government, the investigation of such cases under Section 15(1) RA 6770 and Section 13(1), Article XI, of the Constitution.”
RA 6770 also provides: “the Ombudsman and his Deputies, including the Special Prosecutor, shall be natural born citizens of the Philippines, at least 40 years old, of recognized probity and independence, members of the Philippine Bar, and must not have been candidates for any elective national or local office in the immediately preceding election whether regular or special. The Ombudsman must have, for 10 years or more, been a judge or engaged in the practice of law in the Philippines.”