Conchita Carpio-Morales

Conchita "Chit" Claudio Carpio was born on June 19, 1941, in Paoay, Ilocos Norte, to Lucas Dumlao Carpio Sr., a Justice of the Peace (now equivalent to a trial court judge),[6] and Maria Claudio Carpio.[4] Her father was a member of the Iglesia Filipina Independiente, while her mother was Catholic. She was baptized as a Catholic.[6]

When she was younger, she played marbles, climbed the Paoay Tower, and memorized Shakespeare's passages on the urging of her father. She said that she wanted to be a princess and perform in front of people, especially during fiestas. She also had dreams of being an opera singer.[4] She says she did not consciously plan to be a lawyer, but grew up surrounded by law books and the Official Gazette. According to her, "Perhaps subconsciously, I found the law profession exciting."[6]

She attended Paoay Elementary School and spent her high school years at the Paoay North Institute. She achieved the honour as elementary and high school valedictorian.[3] She was the only one among her six siblings who did not study in a Catholic school.[6]

Active in extra-curricular activities, the young Chit played volleyball, the piano, and even did ballroom dancing by the time she reached college.[7]

She then earned her Bachelor of Arts degree in Economics at the University of the Philippines (UP), Diliman, in 1964.[8][9] In 1968, she earned a Bachelor of Laws from the University of the Philippines College of Law in Diliman.[8] She passed the bar in 1969.[9]

In 2002, upon the unanimous endorsement of the members of the Judicial and Bar Council, Carpio Morales was appointed to the Supreme Court (SC) as Supreme Court Associate Justice[6] by then-President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.[10]

She was only the tenth woman to be appointed to the Supreme Court.[6]

In De Castro v Judicial and Bar Council (2010), the question of whether or not then-President Arroyo was allowed to appoint the next Chief Justice of the Supreme Court was brought to the fore, given that then-outgoing Supreme Court Chief Justice Reynato Puno was retiring within the period that the 1987 Philippine Constitution prohibited the President from making appointments to executive positions. Three of the Supreme Court justices recused themselves from the case, two said that case was premature, and seven voted to allow the President to choose the next Chief Justice. Carpio Morales was the sole dissenter.[11] Supreme Court Associate Justice Renato Corona was then selected by President Arroyo to succeed Chief Justice Puno.

After being elected as the 15th President of the Philippines to replace Arroyo, Benigno Aquino III requested that Carpio Morales administer his oath-taking. Traditionally, it is the Supreme Court's Chief Justice who administers the oath of office to the incoming President and Vice President. However, then-President-elect Aquino refused to have Chief Justice Renato Corona swear him into office due to Aquino's opposition to the midnight appointment.[12] Carpio Morales was Aquino's choice to swear him in.[13][14] Carpio Morales officially accepted the request, and administered the oath-taking of President Benigno Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar Binay on June 30, 2010, at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila.[15][16]

Carpio Morales is the first woman justice to administer the oath of office to an incoming President of the Philippines.[17]

On July 25, 2011, during his State of the Nation Address, President Benigno Aquino III announced the appointment of Carpio Morales as Ombudsman of the Philippines under the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB).[18] The Ombudsman is tasked to act on complaints against the officers or employees of the government, giving priority to complaints against high-ranking officials, covering grave offenses, and involving large sums of money or property.[3]

When Carpio Morales assumed office in 2011, she inherited a caseload of 11,000 pending criminal and administrative cases.[6]

Under the leadership of Carpio Morales, she professionalized and upgraded OMB's capabilities; revolutionized its anti-corruption program to include the designation of deputy ombudsmen for environmental concerns and for investment-related problems; and improved its responsiveness to calls for public assistance. She has also set a target of zero backlog in the investigation or adjudication of cases and disposition of all requests for assistance, and she expects to hit the target by 2018. The independence and quality of OMB's fact-finding investigations, evidence build-up, prosecution strategies and case management have also been improved. As a result, the conviction rate of cases handled by OMB before the Sandiganbayan from 2011 to 2015 rose from 33.3 percent to 74.5 percent.[19]

She has prioritized the filing of cases against high-ranking officials, and has imposed strict administrative sanctions on high officials, including filing cases against a former president; a former vice-president; incumbent senators, congressmen, and governors. She is the first Ombudsman to use the waiver in the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (required of government officials and employees) as a basis to secure bank records in impeaching one of the country's highest officials.[19]

Recognizing that corruption is not just a matter of persons but systems, Carpio Morales took the initiative in creating an integrity management-based program that mobilizes government agencies and the public and addresses the lack of strategy and direction in the overall anti-corruption campaign. She also advocated the passage of legislation to strengthen the OMB's investigative, disciplinary, asset recovery, and preventive powers.[19]

When asked last September 2016 about her greatest accomplishment as an Ombudsman on Solita "Winnie" Monsod's TV show "Bawal ang Pasaway", she said that it was her having "put order in the office, because it was in a state of disorder" when she came in, as well as her implementing some reforms that she wants to institutionalize before she vacates her position. Among these reforms include the system of evaluation of cases, which was partly addressed by the increase in the number of divisions and justices in the Sandiganbayan, and the Integrity Caravan.[20]

Nowadays, she commutes daily from her home in Muntinlupa to her office at Agham Road in Quezon City. She leaves home at 5:40 a.m., and arrives at her office between 6:10 to 6:15 a.m. On a weekday, she tries to resolve between 30 and 35 cases a day before leaving for home before 5:00 p.m. She also comes into her office every Saturday, when she is able to resolve around 50 cases.[6]

The action papers submitted to Carpio Morales are closely scrutinized. To her, it is not just a matter of deciding if the paper is Approved or Disapproved, but is also about looking at the substance of the case. She also demands that the action papers be understandable to laypersons.[6]

Carpio Morales admits that being the Ombudsman is the most challenging job that she has ever held. If in the Supreme Court, there was the assurance of greater quality control because of the presence of the other Justices, As Ombudsman, she decides alone.[6] When making her decisions, she does not believe in compromising the fight against derelict officials. To quote, “But yung sabihin i-kompromise mo na lang ito kasi ganito ganoon, no way. No. Walang mawawala sa akin.”[6] (Translation: To be told to just compromise because of this or that, no way. No. I will not lose anything.) With regard to her agency, Carpio Morales says, "We do not take orders from anyone. We are independent. Period."[21]

Three months before stepping down, Morales called on the people during a conference with the Integrated Bar of the Philippines (IBP) to "don't be silent amid abuse", referring to president Rodrigo Duterte's Philippine Drug War, abuse reports due to martial rule in Mindanao, and other government crackdowns.[22] In June, Morales said in an interview that "the lesson to learn is to never think that you are infallible", adding, amidst criticism from president Duterte, that "I don't quantify success. Success to me is the respect you elicit from people. If people like what you did, that to me is success."[23] Carpio Morales stepped down as Ombudsman on July 26, 2018, after a completion of a seven-year term and was succeeded by Duterte-appointed Samuel Martires.[1][24]

After stepping down in July from her Ombudsmanship, Morales urged her successor to 'stand versus corruption'.[38] On November 24, 2018, Morales released a statement after four months since her retirement, stating, "A nation can survive its fools, and even the ambitious. But it cannot survive treason from within." The statement came in after president Rodrigo Duterte signed multiple partially undisclosed deals with Chinese Communist Party general secretary Xi Jinping, including an oil exploration deal which violates the Constitution and gives leeway to China's claims in the South China Sea.[39]

She, along with former Philippine foreign affairs secretary Albert del Rosario, filed a communication in the International Criminal Court for crimes against humanity against Chinese Communist Party leader Xi Jinping due to China's environmentally destructive activities in the South China Sea, particularly its building of artificial islands. The communication was verified and has since been analyzed by the ICC last May 2019.[40]

Carpio Morales comes from a family of lawyers, which include her father, three of his brothers, and her cousin, former Supreme Court Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.[4]

Baptized as a Catholic, she remains Catholic, although she says that "...I'm not religious. I've always been very vocal about it...I don't think my Catholic upbringing had any impact on my work."[6]

She is married to Eugenio T. Morales, Jr., a retired director of the Land Transportation Franchising and Regulatory Board. They have two sons, Eugenio Morales III and Umberto "Bert" Morales.

Bert, an athlete who was a non-smoker, was unexpectedly diagnosed in June 2015 with Stage 4 lung cancer, which had already metastasized. During this time, although people at the Office of the Ombudsman were aware that Bert was sick, they did not know how serious his health situation was. In fact, all throughout this period, many notable decisions and indictments happened at Carpio Morales' office (see Notable Decisions and Notable Indictments)[6]

After five months of battling cancer, Bert died in October 2015.[4] He was 41 years old.[6]

Two days after Bert's death, Carpio Morales announced the indictment on criminal charges of then-Vice President Binay and his mayor-son. The Ombudsman's dismissals, suspensions, and other work-related activities continued afterwards, as Carpio Morales continued on with her duties. As she described this time, “Work would take me away from the feeling of sadness. I had to occupy myself, for if not…”.[6]

She has two grandchildren from Bert whom she dotes on. As she describes it, "They break the stress attendant to my work."[41] Upon winning the Ramon Magsaysay Award in 2016, Carpio Morales read a letter to her grandchildren Ennio and Cece, where she said that "I draw inspiration and energy from you. I continue working because I want to secure a just and honest society for you and for every Filipino child," ending it with "...as you go to bed tonight, know that your grandmother is optimistic that your tomorrow will be a better day."[19]

Carpio Morales has no personal social media accounts, but her staff lets her know when she goes viral. She says that she appreciates reading positive comments from netizens on social media, and is happy whenever the Supreme Court and the appellate courts concur with her actions as Ombudsman, as these stand as a testament to her hard work.[6]

In the course of her career, she has received several death threats, which included threatening phone calls[42] and the discovery of a grenade near the gate of her house in Muntinlupa.[43]

Carpio Morales is an antique lover who started collecting antiques in 1971 while working for the Department of Justice. One of her prized possessions is an antique chest she inherited from her mother. She paints and plays the piano in her free time. Her favorite composer is Franz Liszt.[9] She has also said that her favorite foreign destination is Prague, and that she enjoys going to museums when she travels.[7]

She is related through marriage to former Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte. Her brother, Lucas Carpio, Jr., is the father of Manases "Mans" Carpio. Mans Carpio is married to Sara Duterte, incumbent Mayor of Davao City and daughter of President Duterte.[4]

Carpio Morales was the recipient of the University of the Philippines Alumni Association (UPAA) Distinguished Alumni Award in Justice/Judiciary during the University of the Philippines' centenary in 2008. She was given the award “for delivering justice with courage and untrammelled integrity—a shining paragon to all magistrates, worthy of emulation and respect.”[44]

In 2011, Carpio Morales was honored as one of the Ten Outstanding Manilans, an award given to persons who have immensely contributed to the benefit and development of Manila and its residents, and whose achievements in their respective fields have given prestige to the country's capital. She was recognized for her performance in the field of law and jurisprudence for her "unquestionable integrity, impartial and fearless dispensation of justice, and her untarnished and dedicated 40-year government public service record."[45]

She was then chosen by the Philippine Daily Inquirer as 2014's Filipino of the Year, together with then-Justice Secretary Leila De Lima and then-Commission on Audit Chair Grace Pulido-Tan, was chosen. These three ladies were given the moniker "Three Furies" and "Tres Marias."[46]

Carpio Morales received an honorary doctor of laws degree from the University of the Philippines on June 27, 2016. As stated by then UP President Alfredo Pascual, UP's Board of Regents conferred to her this honoris causa as "She has herself become the measure of integrity in the government service, the face of courage and daring determination, of competence and independence, and of one resolutely intolerant of corruption."[47]

In the same year, Carpio Morales was given the Ramon Magsaysay Award, regarded as Asia's Nobel Prize. As mentioned by the Ramon Magsaysay Board of Trustees board in the citation, she was elected to receive the award in recognition of “her moral courage and commitment to justice in taking head-on one of the most intractable problems in the Philippines; promoting by her example of incorruptibility, diligence, vision and leadership, the highest ethical standards in public service.”[19]

In 2017, Carpio Morales received Quezon City's Tandang Sora Award, in recognition of exhibiting the same values as Philippine heroine Melchora Aquino, who was known by the moniker Tandang Sora. These values are honesty, industry, service, word of honor, caring, and protectiveness. Carpio Morales' dedication and untarnished reputation as a public servant was also recognized through this award.[48]

• Media related to Conchita Carpio-Morales at Wikimedia Commons
• Conchita Carpio Morales, Present Ombudsman Profile from the Office of the Ombudsman Website.
• Conchita Carpio Morales, Awardee Profile, Ramon Magsaysay Award from The Ramon Magsaysay Award Foundation Website
• Rappler Talk: Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales, video interview with Maria Ressa, Rappler, 4 February 2016.
• Conchita Carpio Morales is a Woman of Steel, Profile by Oliver X.A. Reyes, Esquire Philippines, 2 February 2018.