Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte suspends anti-graft official after bank records ‘leak’
Melchor Arthur Carandang told local media last year the Ombudsman had been looking into the president’s family’s finances since 2016
Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte on Monday punished an anti-graft prosecutor suspected of leaking his bank records after an opposition politician had accused Duterte of corruption.
When he was still a presidential candidate Duterte was accused of unlawfully failing to disclose 211 million pesos (US$4.1 million) in secret bank accounts. The 2016 complaint was lodged with the Ombudsman, an anti-corruption prosecutor.
Duterte has denied the allegation. On Monday his spokesman Harry Roque said the president’s chief aide had suspended the deputy ombudsman, Melchor Arthur Carandang, for three months.
The Ombudsman’s office had no comment.
Carandang told a local television station last year that the Ombudsman had since 2016 been quietly investigating Duterte and his family’s bank transactions.
Clearly this is another Duterte tactic that’s meant to bully democratic institutions into submission