MANILA, Philippines — A party-list group Friday asked the Office of the Ombudsman to investigate SC administrator and spokesperson Midas Marquez over alleged irregularities in the implementation of the World Bank-funded Judicial Reform Support Project and for serving as “unofficial defense counsel” of Chief Justice Renato Corona.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Walden Bello filed a complaint asking Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales to investigate Marquez for cases of corruption and abuse office as well as failing “to live up to the highest standard of behavior expected of public officials.”

Bello said that Marquez’s actions serving as unofficial defense counsel of Corona at the public’s expense as well alleged irregularities JRSP serve should be investigated by the Ombudsman.

“Marquez, as the public face of the Supreme Court, could have stood for all that is best in the courts and the legal profession: Wisdom, integrity, fairness, a zeal for serving the people," Bello said.

“Instead, the totality of his acts and omissions encapsulate what unfortunately many now perceive as the institutional failings of the Court: Entrenchment into a privileged position, and a refusal to be accountable to the public,” he said.

When Marquez acted as the “unofficial defense counsel of impeached Corona, the SC spokesperson crossed the line between being a representative of the Court, and being the chief justice's private spokesperson and defense counsel for the impeachment trial,” said Bello.