“THERE can be no higher achievement than possessing the people’s trust, than being entrusted with defending the people’s interest.”
So said Vice President Jejomar Binay on Friday during a testimonial dinner tendered by the University of the Philippines (UP) Women Lawyers’ Circle (Wiloci) to honor newly installed Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, a retired associate justice of the Supreme Court and active member of the organization.
The UP Wiloci is a nongovernmental organization whose members are alumni of the UP College of Law. The organization gives free legal services to poor litigants.
Vice President Jejomar Binay, who took his oath before Carpio-Morales, and Sen. Franklin Drilon were among those who attended the event held at the Manila Polo Club in Makati City. The two gave testimonials to Carpio-Morales’s ability to perform her duties as Ombudsman because of her integrity and rich judicial experience for having served in the judiciary for 28 years.
Binay noted that the Ombudsman is “the person entrusted with defending constituent interests.… He or she is someone whom the people trusts to represent or defend them when and if their welfare or interests are, in any manner, threatened.”
“This, in essence, is what President Noynoy Aquino put into action when he appointed Associate Justice Carpio-Morales Ombudsman. As President of the Republic, who himself holds the people’s trust, he chose, from among other worthy candidates, Justice Carpio-Morales for this position of trust.”
Morales started her career in the judiciary in 1983 after being appointed as presiding judge of the Regional Trial Court in Pili, Camarines Sur. Three years after, she was transferred to the Regional Trial Court in Pasay.
Prior to her appointment in the judiciary, Morales served for 12 years, starting in 1971, as special assistant to Justice Secretary Vicente Abad Santos.
In 1994 she was appointed to the Court of Appeals, and on September 3, 2002, she became one of the members of the 15-man High Tribunal.
President Aquino had earlier expressed confidence that Carpio-Morales would be able to perform her functions as mandated by law.
Carpio-Morales has given assurances that she has the “moral fiber to prosecute those who ought to be prosecuted and to ward off extra-legal factors” that would impede in the proceedings before the Ombudsman.
She holds the distinction of being the first woman magistrate to administer the oath of office to a President of the Republic of the Philippines.
Mr. Aquino took his oath before Carpio-Morales on June 30, 2010.
