Melchor Arthur Carandang

Education Carandang received his Bachelor of Arts degree at the Ateneo de Manila University, and later his Bachelor of Laws degree at the University of Santo Tomas.

Carandang passed the Philippine Bar Examinations in 1991, and later acquired his Master of Laws degree at the University of New South Wales in Australia in the mid-1990s. In 2000, he was appointed head of the Legal, Monitoring and Prosecution Division at the Ombudsman's Fact Finding and Intelligence Bureau, and by 2001 he was made head of a similar division at the agency's Research and Special Studies Bureau. He later left the agency by 2007 to focus on his private law practice, serving as legal consultant for Yazaki Torres Manufacturing, Inc.

In 2011, he returned to the Office of the Ombudsman as its legal consultant, and by October 2013 was appointed its Overall Deputy Ombudsman (or ODO) by President Benigno Aquino III, being sworn in on November 5, 2013. From January 2014 to November 2016, Carandang served as Acting Special Prosecutor, and by June 2014, Carandang was also designated as Investment Ombudsman. The report had cited Alberto Sipaco Jr., director of the Commission on Human Rights Region XI, as stating that his office was not able to find proof of the existence of DDS.

In December 2016, self-confessed former contract killer Edgar Matobato filed a complaint before the Ombudsman asking the agency to investigate president Duterte for crimes against humanity, accusing him of forming the Davao Death Squad during his tenure as Davao City mayor. Matobato soon expressed his intention to petition the Ombudsman to include president Duterte in its case. Imprisoned Senator Leila de Lima, who had previously argued that the Ombudsman should "proceed with urgency" due to evidence of Duterte's alleged crimes as mayor, later deemed this exclusion an error that "practically seals the fate on any domestic remedial measure on the accountability of President Duterte".

Attempted investigation into President Duterte's bank records (Trillanes v. Duterte) As Ombudsman, Conchita Carpio-Morales authorized ODO Carandang to handle all cases involving the Duterte family due to her conflict of interest. On May 5, 2016, Senator Antonio Trillanes filed a plunder complaint to the Ombudsman against then-mayor Rodrigo Duterte of Davao City and his family, accusing him of embezzling public funds that went undeclared in his SALN which he based on alleged bank documents that he retrieved. Trillanes' complaint was simultaneous to five other cases against Duterte that were pending before the Ombudsman at the time. After Duterte won the 2016 presidential election that same month, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales affirmed her office's commitment in pursuing Duterte's cases to determine their merits. Carandang also noted that he approved last August the request of Rodolfo Elman, the Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao conducting the fact-finding investigation, to ask for the AMLC's final report on the records, which was not yet provided to the Ombudsman, and attested that their investigation was simultaneous to AMLC's own separate probe into Duterte's bank records for potential money laundering.

On September 28, the AMLC issued a statement claiming that it had yet to provide the Ombudsman "any report as a consequence of any investigation of subject accounts" as it had not yet initiated an investigation into Duterte's bank records, with the agency stating that it was still evaluating Carandang's letter of request from August 17, 2017 that it received on September 6. The agency also mentioned that Trillanes' copy of Duterte's bank records, attached to Carandang's letter, did not come from their agency (Trillanes' own request to the AMLC for the Duterte family's bank documents had been denied in April 2017). Trillanes initially expressed concerns about the statement's possible inauthenticity due to the lack of a signature and date on the document; the AMLC itself, however, later confirmed in a letter to Solicitor General Jose Calida that the statement is authentic. The Office of the Ombudsman also issued a statement that contains a brief line responding to AMLC's claim: "As to the documents in [the Ombudsman's] possession, the office stands by its word."

Although presidential spokesperson Ernesto Abella initially stated that president Duterte "respects the internal processes of the Ombudsman" for he has "nothing to hide", Duterte threatened in an interview with Erwin Tulfo on September 28 to form his own commission to investigate corruption at the Ombudsman and arrest agency officials that do not comply. Two days later, he declared in an expletive-laden speech that he will not cooperate with the agency's probe into his bank records, promising to resign if 200 million was found in his bank account and calling Carandang a liar for using Trillanes' documents that Duterte claims to be fake; he further stated: "Pray, Carandang. I'm not threatening you. If the Philippines becomes a mess, I will go after you first." In response to Duterte's statements in the Tulfo interview, the Ombudsman released a statement affirming that "this office shall not be intimidated.... If the President has nothing to hide, he has nothing to fear." It also noted that Carandang affirms the agency to have "observed confidentiality" throughout its investigation into Trillanes' complaint against Duterte. Senator Koko Pimentel also noted that the agency "theoretically" has no legal authority over president Duterte, stating that "No one is immune from investigation, but the President is immune from suits, from cases, except an impeachment case, but the President is also not required to cooperate with this investigation [by the] Ombudsman."

Carandang later terminated the plunder investigation on November 29, 2017 upon recommendation by Cyril E. Ramos, Deputy Ombudsman for Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices (MOLEO), due to the lack of cooperation from the AMLC, although the lack of a formal dismissal allows for the case to be refiled. By May 2018, five cases against former Davao City Vice Mayor Paolo Duterte, president Duterte's son, were also pending before the Ombudsman, while a 6.4 billion methamphetamine ("shabu") shipment case against Paolo and Mans Carpio that began in November 2017 was dismissed by the agency's fact-finding team for "lack of basis". Carandang initially handled the Paolo Duterte cases, but by June 2018, ombudsman Carpio-Morales stated that Deputy Ombudsman Ramos had since taken over the investigations.

Administrative complaints; preventive suspension and dismissal On October 3, 2017, Carandang was charged by lawyers Manuelito Luna and Eligio Mallari before the Office of the President of graft and betrayal of public trust for his allegedly false claim that the AMLC issued a "report" on Duterte's financial records that was shared to the Ombudsman; also included in the complaint were Deputy Ombudsman for Mindanao Rodolfo Elman and his fact-finding team for violating the bank secrecy law by providing Duterte's accounts to Carandang. In the weeks prior, Luna had filed an impeachment complaint against COMELEC chairman Andy Bautista while Mallari filed an impeachment complaint against Chief Justice Maria Lourdes Sereno. Mallari would later be suspended from law practice for two years the next year for unethical conduct in blocking a lower court's ruling for his unsettled GSIS loan.

On the same day, former representatives Jacinto Paras of Negros Oriental and Glenn Chong of Biliran also filed charges against Carandang before the Office of the President for "gross misconduct" and "grave "dishonesty" in disclosing bank records that were revealed to be "falsified and spurious".

On January 29, 2018, Carandang was issued a 90-day preventive suspension order by Malacañang Palace after Executive Secretary Salvador Medialdea formally charged him with both "grave misconduct" and "grave dishonesty" for disclosing "unauthenticated" documents pertaining to the bank accounts of the Duterte family; Medialdea reasoned that Carandang was "guilty of divulging valuable information of a confidential character", and based the charges on the complaint filed by Luna and Mallari. Carandang was thus given ten days to explain why he should not be suspended. The suspension order for Carandang was criticized by several lawmakers and academics as a violation of the Ombudsman's independence, which is provided for by the Constitution, while Senator Risa Hontiveros argumentatively asked "How can anybody be guilty of divulging valuable information that, according to Malacañang, is fake?" Ombudsman Carpio-Morales also refused to recognize the order for it being "unconstitutional", stating that she will not "allow herself to betray her sworn duty to uphold the Constitution." By February 15, ombudsman Carpio-Morales issued a statement emphasizing that the investigation was "closed and terminated" without being dismissed, and is thus allowed to be refiled with new evidence, and argued that her recusal from the cases involving Duterte, as "[Calida] pointed out", would make it improper for her to intervene, adding that she only found out about the termination when Carandang was ordered suspended. She stated that the probe of Carandang, whose suspension was never enforced, was based on the president's accusation that he violated bank secrecy laws.

On July 30, 2018, Carandang was ordered dismissed by Malacañang Palace in a decision signed by Executive Secretary Medialdea for being found liable for graft and corruption and betrayal of public trust, a decision which newly-appointed Ombudsman Samuel Martires later affirmed he would have "no choice" but to enforce. The order for Carandang's dismissal was criticized by observers as illegal for violating a Supreme Court ruling from 2014 barring the president from removing a deputy ombudsman from office. The enforcement of Carandang's dismissal occurred on June 14, 2019, which he later appealed before the Court of Appeals; Ombudsman Special Prosecutor Edilberto G. Sandoval immediately succeeded him as acting Deputy Ombudsman. Liong would later be implicated in the Pharmally scandal in 2021.

In a 2026 decision, the Supreme Court ruled that "y constitutional design, the President possesses no administrative or disciplinary authority over a Deputy Ombudsman", thus establishing Carandang's dismissal as void. The ruling described the dismissal as "direct affront to accountability" and "the very evil the Constitution sought to guard against". Carandang was also entitled to receive his back salaries and retirement benefits.

Personal life Carandang is married to dentist Lorelie M. Carandang. They have three children.