SC urged to void executive clemency given to ex-mayor

MANILA, Philippines —  Saying it violated the 1987 Constitution, former Iloilo City councilor Plaridel Nava II asked the Supreme Court (SC) to declare as null and void the executive clemency granted to ex-mayor Jed Mabilog.

Nava argued that the clemency granted to Mabilog encroached on the independence and mandate of the Office of the Ombudsman, aside from violating due process and Section 19 Article VII of the Constitution.

Citing a 1991 SC decision, Nava said a President can grant executive clemency in administrative charges, but not for cases “in the judicial or legislative branches of the government.”

?Nava said the ombudsman is an “independent constitutional body exercising quasi-judicial functions and is separate and distinct from the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government.”

?“Its decisions, resolutions and legal orders are not even appealable to the Office of the President,” he argued.

The ombudsman found Mabilog in 2017 guilty of grave misconduct, serious dishonesty and conduct prejudicial to the best of interest of the service and ordered him dismissed from the service.

Mabilog was also perpetually disqualified from holding public office and barred from taking civil service examinations.