I AM very excited to see how Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales will react to the stinging rebuke which came from Sen. Grace Poe about the failure of the Ombudsman to include Transportation and Communications Secretary Joseph Emilio Abaya as among those she sued for graft in connection with the maintenance contract for the Metro Rail Transit Line 3 (MRT 3). This excitement is due largely to Morales’ very public outburst last week, in which she said “nabubuwisit na ako” (or, “I am miffed”) against people accusing her of double standard of justice in her work as an Ombudsman, principally because she had been suing only the political enemies of her patron, President Aquino, while leaving out his allies. Now, it is Poe (the frontunning “presidentiable” for 2016 whose patron is also President Aquino) who is making the accusations against Morales. Will Morales display a similar childish, immature, and largely arrogant retort against Poe, or will she be swallowing her pride this time, remaining silent and not answering Poe’s questions? And does Morales have the guts to tell Poe, “nabubuwisit ako sa iyo”? Accompanying Poe’s questions are similar concerns on why Morales chose to file only charges for graft and corruption, which will allow those she sued to post bail and thereby be spared from the detention which opposition Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada, and Bong Revilla are being subjected to now. Indeed, the anomaly concerning the maintenance contract for MRT 3 involves hundreds of millions of pesos, so that the proper charges that Morales should have filed would be for plunder. Now, Morales has to explain: why did she choose to sue MRT 3 officials with an offense lesser than plunder? Is it because they are also allies of the President? •• Columnist Bobi Tiglao chimed in a reaction to the public outburst of Ombudsman Morales against those accusing her of double standard in prosecuting only the political enemies of her patron, President Aquino. Tiglao wrote: “Who does she think she is? That she is the fountainhead of justice that she doesn’t need to explain to the nation, through the media, the very widespread belief that she is prosecuting only the opposition? “Since her appointment in 2012, she practically has been Aquino’s deadliest political assassin. It is Aquino’s corruption of the Office of the Ombudsman to turn it into his political assassination squad against his enemies that marks the depths of depravity of this regime, its severe damaging of our Republican institutions…” •• Here are more officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) who were sued for plunder and graft with the Ombudsman by Reynaldo Joson, the former chief of the DFA’s Hygiene and Sanitation Unit, in connection with the anomalous use of the DFA’s P5 billion yearly budget for repair and maintenance. Read on: “Asst. Engineering Head Cesar Cruz-former administrative officer of the Office of the Secretary (OSEC). Today, he is the Assistant Head of the Engineering Department, tasked to look for new projects for repair and/or renovation. His participation in the anomalies is that all repair and renovation projects, among others, started at the Engineering Department, in cahoots with the contractors. “Consul Roberto Bernardo-he replaced Engr. Philip Tabula. He likewise continued the unfinished business of the Engineering Department, in conspiracy with the contractors prior to the bidding process. He plans and designs all in-coming projects of the department, including costing thereof. •• This is the final list of officials of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) who were sued for graft before the Ombudsman by Reynaldo Joson, a former DFA official himself, in connection with his accusation that the officials conspired to misuse the P5 billion annual budget for DFA repairs and maintenance. Read on: “Dir. Rodelio Catalan- the former property director of the Property Maintenance and Transportation Division (PMTD); Kerwin C. Tate---currently the Director of the PMTD; A/Sec. Melita Santa Maria-Thomeczek---the Assistant Secretary of OPAS; Exec. Dir. Alfonso Ver---the Executive Director of Office of Personnel and Administrative Services (OPAS); U/Sec Rafael Seguis---he replaced U/Sec. Frank Ebdalin; Engr. Michael Salazar---former engineering head. Joson named three private contractors in his complaint: Jesusito D. Legaspi, President of JD Legaspi Construction Corporation, with office address at 202 A.Luna Street Mandaluyong City, Metro Manila. “Gertrudes P. Bongar, General Manager of I. M. Bongar & Company with office address at 310 Pilar Road. Almanza I Las Pinas City; and Mario N. Chan, General Manager, MCCD Engineering Services & Trading with office address at U-11 Arcadia Square Bldg. J.P. Rizal Ext. Makati City.” Part of the complaint reads: “Amb. Rowena Sanchez-formerly Special Assistant to OMWA (or the Office of the Migrant Workers Affairs), DFA. Upon her knowing of my intention to prevent the ongoing anomalous projects of JD Legaspi Construction, she introduced me to A/Sec Bataclan. “Bataclan then advised me as follows: ‘Rey, e-go mo na lahat ng mga projets at sumama ka na sa amin. Kami na ang bahala sa iyo para everybody happy.’ After the meeting, she brought and introduced me to Dir. Rey Catapang, who said: ‘Tukayo, pagbutihin mo, sama-sama tayo.’ “Amb. Cecile Rabong-she was the former Chief Coordinator at the Office of the Secretary of DFA. As Chief Coordinator, she knows what is happening in the Department but failed to stop the corruption and collective anomalies in the office…” E-mail: batasmauricio@yahoo.com