Conchita Carpio-Morales

Conchita Carpio Morales
Ombudsman of the Philippines
Incumbent
Assumed office
July 28, 2011
Appointed by Benigno Aquino III
Preceded by Orlando C. Casimiro (Acting)
Associate Justice
of the Philippine Supreme Court
In office
August 26, 2002  June 17, 2011
Appointed by Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo
Preceded by Jose Melo
Succeeded by Estela Perlas-Bernabe
Personal details
Born June 19, 1941
Paoay, Ilocos Norte
Spouse(s) Eugenio T. Morales

Conchita Carpio-Morales (born June 19, 1941) is the current Ombudsman of the Philippines. She was previously an Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines.

Carpio-Morales is married to Eugenio T. Morales, Jr., with whom she has two sons, Eugenio III and Umberto.[1]


Profile

She was born on June 19, 1941 in Paoay, Ilocos Norte. She is the daughter of Lucas D. Carpio, a judge, and Maria Claudio Carpio.

In 1964, Carpio-Morales earned a Bachelor's degree in Economics at the University of the Philippines.[1] In 1968, she earned a Bachelor of Laws at the University of the Philippines College of Law.[1]

From 1968 to 1971, she started her career in a Manila law firm where she was an Assistant Attorney.[1] In 1971, a former University of the Philippines professor of Carpio-Morales, Secretary of Justice Vicente Abad Santos, took her in as a Special Assistant at the Department of Justice.[1] From 1971 to 1983, Carpio-Morales worked at the Department of Justice as assistant, lawyer, researcher, assistant special lawyer and senior state counsel before she became a judge.[1]

Between 1983 to 1986, President Ferdinand Marcos appointed Carpio-Morales as a Regional Trial Court judge in Pili, Camarines Sur.[1] On November 4, 1986, President Corazon Aquino appointed Carpio-Morales as RTC judge in Pasay City.[1]

In 1994, President Fidel V. Ramos appointed her to the Philippine Court of Appeals. She headed the 7th Division of the Court of Appeals.[1]

In 2000, Carpio-Morales was a bar examiner in legal ethics. She was also conferred the Ulirang Ina Award for Law and the Judiciary by the National Mother's Day & Father's Day Foundation, Inc.[1]

On September 3, 2002, upon the unanimous endorsement of the members of the Judicial and Bar Council, Carpio-Morales was appointed to the high court by former President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.[2]

Traditionally, it is the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines who administers the oath of office to the incoming President and the Vice President, however, incoming President Benigno Aquino III refused to allow Chief Justice Renato Corona to swear him into office, due to Aquino's opposition to the midnight appointment of Corona by outgoing President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo on May 12, 2010, two days after the 2010 elections and a month before Arroyo's term expires.[3] Instead, Aquino formally requested Associate Justice Carpio-Morales, who opposed the midnight appointment of Corona, to swear him into office.[4] On June 30, 2010, President Benigno Aquino III and Vice President Jejomar Binay took the oath of office at the Quirino Grandstand in Rizal Park, Manila.[5][6] The oath of office was administered by Associate Justice Carpio-Morales, who officially accepted Aquino's request to swear him into office,[4][6] reminiscent of the decision of Aquino's mother, President Corazon Aquino, who in 1986, was sworn into the presidency by Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee.[7] She is also the first female magistrate to administer the oath of office of the President of the Philippines

On July 25, 2011, during his State of the Nation Address, President Noynoy Aquino announced the appointment of Carpio-Morales as Ombudsman of the Philippines.[8]

Carpio-Morales is the cousin of Associate Justice Antonio Carpio.[9]

Some notable opinions

References

External links

Political offices
Preceded by
Orlando C. Casimiro
Acting
Ombudsman of the Philippines
2011–present
Incumbent
Legal offices
Preceded by
Jose Melo
Associate Justice of the Supreme Court of the Philippines
2002–2011
Succeeded by
Estela Perlas-Bernabe