OMBUDSMAN Jesus Crispin Remulla on Thursday admitted that the 2016 order of dismissal against then CIBAC party-list representative and now Senator Joel Villanueva had been reversed by his predecessor, former Ombudsman Samuel Martires.
Remulla made the clarification after indicating during that the dismissal remains enforceable and that he would write to Senate President Vicente Sotto to immediately implement it.
The dismissal order stemmed from the alleged misuse of Villanueva’s 2008 Priority Development Assistance Funds (PDAF).
‘That should be enforceable immediately by a letter containing the decision given to the Senate President. And the Senate President should be the one to enforce it,’ Remulla told ANC in an interview on Thursday morning.
‘That is the only way to do it. We will try to enforce it now. We will write a letter to the Senate President,’ the Ombudsman added.
Remulla said he would personally deliver the letter to Sotto on Friday during the Senate hearing on the Ombudsman’s 2026 proposed budget.
He added that the implementation of the order would be for the ‘good of the people.’
‘We respect the way that they conduct business. We respect the independence of the Senate. But the design of the government is that the Ombudsman is there to protect the people,’ Remulla stressed.
Villanueva’s dismissal order was issued by former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio in 2008 during his term as congressional representative of CIBAC partylist after finding him guilty of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the interest of the service.
However, Martires said Villanueva’s dismissal had already been reversed after the senator’s motion for reconsideration was granted in 2019.
‘To my surprise, when I got to the office, I was confronted with a decision signed by former Ombudsman [Samue] Martires dated July 2019,’ Remulla said in an ambush inter with reporters.
‘That’s it, it only came out when I said the Ombudsman would do something about it. So, it’s a surprise, a secret decision,’ he added.
Remulla noted that Villanueva and Martires were quiet about the reversal of his dismissal.
‘[Senator] Joel Villanueva kept quiet all these years. Ombudsman Martires never spoke about it. Isn’t it like a secret decision? Did you even know about that,’ Remulla asked reporters.