No valid grounds to probe VP - ombudsman

For Ombudsman Samuel Martires, there are no valid grounds at this point to investigate Vice President Sara Duterte for her alleged threat to assassinate President Marcos or for her possible misuse of confidential funds amounting to P125 million.

- By ELIZABETH MARCELO

Martires also told Justice Undersecretary Jesse Andres to "shut up" about the issue.

"As far as we are concerned right now, we have not seen any acts of the Vice President that we should investigate," Martires told GMA News on Thursday night. "We do not find anything that was in violation of, one, the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, or of any offenses in the Revised Penal Code that is in relation to the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.”

He was reacting to a pronouncement from Andres that the ombudsman has the authority and the duty to “discipline and to take necessary measures” in the face of Duterte’s admission about contracting a person to kill Marcos, the First Lady and Speaker Martin Romualdez as well as her failure to account for her confidential funds.

Andres said investigating Duterte is part of the ombudsman’s “mandate as the investigator of all highranking government officials.”