A Ramon Magsaysay awardee and drug war victims’ advocate used the Ombudsman’s 38th anniversary mass Tuesday to deliver a pointed homily — arguing that real institutional transformation demands more than filing cases and winning convictions.
Fr. Flavie Villanueva told those gathered that the Office of the Ombudsman carries what he described as a moral mandate, one that sets it apart from ordinary prosecutorial bodies.
“The Ombudsman is called not only to investigate wrongdoings but to preserve moral courage within governance itself,” he said.
Villanueva acknowledged what he sensed as a shift in public confidence, noting that many Filipinos are beginning to believe in the country’s accountability institutions again. “Many sense a renewed seriousness in restoring institutions of justice to their constitutional vocation,” he said.
But the priest was careful to draw a line between procedural action and genuine change. “True transformation is not merely about filing cases or prosecuting wrongdoings,” Villanueva said. “Transformation in its authentic sense means restoring trust, recovering credibility, and rebuilding the moral chemistry among institutions that was destroyed once in a time.”
In his keynote, Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla echoed the gravity of the moment, saying the agency bears significant responsibility for national stability. “We play a heavy role because if our legal system is not fixed, if the way our government runs is not fixed, what will happen to the Filipino people?” he said in Filipino.
Also attending the mass was former Overall Deputy Ombudsman Melchor Arthur Carandang, whose dismissal by then-President Rodrigo Duterte was recently voided by the Supreme Court’s Third Division. The court ruled that the president holds no administrative or disciplinary authority over a deputy ombudsman. Carandang, who had been removed following his investigation into Duterte’s wealth and that of his family, declined to speak to the press after the event.
