Would every negligent act or misconduct in the performance of a Deputy Ombudsman's duties constitute betrayal of public trust warranting immediate removal from office? - sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2012/september2012/196231.pdf

See - sc.judiciary.gov.ph/jurisprudence/2012/september2012/196231.pdf


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Would every negligent act or misconduct in the performance of a 
Deputy Ombudsman's duties constitute betrayal of public trust warranting immediate removal from office? The question calls for a deeper, circumspective look at the nature of the grounds for the removal of a Deputy Ombudsman and a Special Prosecutor vis-a-vis common administrative
offenses.


 Betrayal of public trust is a new ground for impeachment under the 1987 Constitution added to the existing grounds of culpable violation of the
Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption and other high crimes. While it was deemed broad enough to cover any violation of the oath of office,65 the impreciseness of its definition also created apprehension that "such an overarching standard may be too broad and may be subject to abuse and arbitrary exercise by the legislature."66 Indeed, the catch-all phrase betrayal of public trust that referred to "all acts not punishable by statutes as penal offenses but, nonetheless, render the officer unfit to continue in office"67 could be easily utilized for every conceivable misconduct or negligence in office. However, deliberating on some workable standard by which the ground could be reasonably interpreted, the Constitutional Commission recognized that human error and good faith precluded an adverse conclusion.

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The Constitutional Commission eventually found it reasonably acceptable for the phrase betrayal of public trust to refer to "[a]cts which are just short of being criminal but constitute gross faithlessness against public trust, tyrannical abuse of power, inexcusable negligence of duty, favoritism, and gross exercise of discretionary powers."69 In other words, acts that should constitute betrayal of public trust as to warrant removal from office may be less than criminal but must be attended by bad faith and of such gravity and seriousness as the other grounds for impeachment.


 A Deputy Ombudsman and a Special Prosecutor are not impeachable officers. However, by providing for their removal from office on the same grounds as removal by impeachment, the legislature could not have intended to redefine constitutional standards of culpable violation of the Constitution, treason, bribery, graft and corruption, other high crimes, as well as betrayal of public trust, and apply them less stringently. Hence, where betrayal of public trust, for purposes of impeachment, was not intended to cover all kinds of official wrongdoing and plain errors of judgment, this should remain true even for purposes of removing a Deputy Ombudsman and Special Prosecutor from office. Hence, the fact that the grounds for impeachment have been made statutory grounds for the removal by the President of a Deputy Ombudsman and Special Prosecutor cannot diminish
the seriousness of their nature nor the acuity of their scope. Betrayal of public trust could not suddenly "overreach" to cover acts that are not vicious or malevolent on the same level as the other grounds for impeachment.

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