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The Flimsy Excuses of Samuel Martires 

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Louis ‘Barok’ Biraogo

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The Flimsy Excuses of Samuel Martires 

By Hail to the Chair — November 2, 2025

THE public has the inherent right to criticize the quality of the work of all public officers, former Ombudsman Samuel Martires included.  Nobody forced them to seek public office, and their salaries and allowances are paid from taxpayers’ money.

From that premise, it must be stated that Martires is a factory of flimsy excuses.  If he thinks the public is buying his endless array of tall tales, he is absolutely mistaken. 

After retiring as a Justice of the Supreme Court in 2018, Martires got himself appointed Ombudsman by his good friend and law school buddy, President Rodrigo Duterte.  Unlike his predecessor, Conchita Carpio-Morales, herself a former Justice of the Supreme Court before she became Ombudsman, Martires was better off all the while as full-fledged retiree.  It was almost as if Martires treated his seven-year stay in the Office of the Ombudsman as a protracted luxury vacation at the expense of the taxpayers. 

Actually, Martires managed to issue a memorandum circular that will go down in history as a patently unconstitutional edict that will undoubtedly pale in comparison to even the most restrictive decree issued by the authoritarian administration of the late President Ferdinand Marcos Sr.  

In 2020, Martires issued his infamous Memorandum Circular No. 1 by which he practically outlawed public access to any Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) on file in the Office of the Ombudsman.  Under Martires’ circular, one who wants to access the SALN of a public officer on file in the office will have to produce a notarized written consent from the public officer whose SALN is being sought.  

Goodness, gracious!  Who in his right mind will consent to the release of a document that may eventually be used against himself? Martires’ circular is absurd, and absurdity is not the goal of government service.  

When Martires was Ombudsman, he did almost nothing to make erring public officers account for their wrongdoings.  In stark contrast to Martires, Carpio-Morales earned her keep as Ombudsman by rendering a decision against an incumbent senator in an administrative case.

 In 2016, Carpio-Morales issued her decision in an administrative case against Senator Joel Villanueva involving the alleged use of public funds to finance a nonexistent project.  In that decision, which became final and executory, Villanueva was permanently disqualified from holding public office.  

When the Office of the Ombudsman attempted to enforce the decision, the old boys club in the Senate refused to yield one of their own.  The senators gave the flimsy and constitutionally groundless excuse that only the Senate may remove a sitting senator.

That decision notwithstanding, Villanueva was able to get himself reelected to the Senate in 2022.  He is currently on his second term.

Happily, Martires’ useless tour of duty as Ombudsman came to a most welcome end on July 27, 2025 when his seven-year term finally expired.  This meant that the wastage of taxpayer money for his salaries and allowances also ended.

Upon assuming office in October 2025, the new Ombudsman, Jesus Crispin “Boying” Remulla, immediately issued Memorandum Circular No. 3 which now allows public access to the SALNs on file in the Office of the Ombudsman, but this time without Martires’ onerous and illegal requirement of a notarized consent therefor from the public office whose SALN is sought.  

Remulla’s Memorandum Circular No. 3 not only repealed Martires’ Memorandum Circular No. 1; it upholds the constitutional right of the public to access the SALN of public officers.  It also highlighted the idiocy behind Martires’ circular.

Thereafter, when the news media revealed Remulla’s no-nonsense plan to enforce the decision of Carpio-Morales against Villanueva in the Senate, everyone was in for an unpleasant surprise.  

For the first time, Villanueva publicly announced that in 2016, he filed a motion for reconsideration against the Carpio-Morales decision, and that in 2019, Martires, the successor of Carpio-Morales, issued a resolution granting Villanueva’s motion.  Martires confirmed the tale peddled by Villanueva to the press.

A furious Remulla, who learned of the Martires resolution only after he recently assumed office, correctly called the Martires’ resolution “a secret decision.”  

Nagging questions now arise.  

Why did Villanueva reveal Martires’ resolution only now, after Remulla began to take steps to enforce the Carpio-Morales decision?   Why did Villanueva keep his alleged exoneration a secret from everybody for the past six years?  Considering that Villanueva ran for reelection in 2022, why didn’t he reveal his purported exoneration by Martires during his reelection campaign?  Doing so would have removed the sword of Damocles hanging over his head for the past several years.  

Villanueva’s suspicious silence on his “exoneration” at a time when he ought to have made it public, strengthens Remulla’s assertion that the Martires resolution was “a secret decision.”

For his part, Martires alleged that he kept his resolution away from the public eye because he did not want to unduly embarrass Villanueva.  Huh?  How can his resolution unduly embarrass Villanueva when the same is actually in favor of the latter?

It’s time for the public and the Ombudsman to put Martires in his rightful place and made to account for his issuance of Memorandum Circular No. 1, and his “secret decision” supposedly exonerating Villanueva.  In short, Martires should be investigated and sued by the Ombudsman.  The days of his lame excuses are over.  ■ 

Hail to the Chair

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