US gov't misses Marcelo as ombudsman - WikiLeaks

MANILA, Philippines - The United States government misses working with former Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo, who has been appointed for a second three-year term as adviser on good governance and anti-corruption of the World Bank (WB), WikiLeaks has reported.

“Marcelo has worked very closely with the US and his presence will be missed. The US has worked with Marcelo on a wide variety of anti-corruption projects and his presence will be missed,” read a leaked “sensitive but unclassified” message.

The remarks were made in September 2005 when Marcelo announced that he was stepping down and cutting short his seven-year term as Ombudsman, which should have ended in October 2009, due to his declining health condition, owing to his punishing schedule.

The US embassy in Manila attributed his resignation to “disagreements with other GRP (Government of the Republic of the Philippines) officials or being fed up with official corruption in the government,” although this was not played up in media.