Reuters: The office of the Philippine president has sacked a deputy ombudsman for revealing information about an inquiry into alleged unexplained wealth of President Rodrigo Duterte, saying that his intent was to discredit him. Arthur Carandang is liable for graft and betrayal of public trust for publicizing evidence he had on the alleged undeclared wealth of Duterte and his family, according to a 10-page decision issued by executive secretary, Salvador Medialdea.
The investigation into Duterte by the Office of the Ombudsman, an independent agency, followed a complaint by a prominent senator that Duterte had amassed as much as 2.2 billion pesos ($41.5 million) when he was a city mayor. Duterte denies that.
The investigation, which was terminated in November last year, led to repeated angry outbursts by Duterte about the Ombudsman. Carandang was sacked because of “guilty of manifest partiality” toward Senator Antonio Trillanes, a staunch critic of Duterte, with the intent to broadcast information “adverse to the president”, according to Medialdea’s decision.