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.
In 1994, President Fidel V. Ramos appointed her to the Philippine Court of Appeals. She headed the 7th Division of the Court of Appeals.
In 2000, Carpio-Morales was a bar examiner in legal ethics. She also conferred the Ulirang Ina Award for Law and the Judiciary by the National Mother’s Day & Father’s Day Foundation, Inc.
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.
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. Instead, Aquino formally requested Associate Justice Carpio-Morales, who opposed the midnight appointment of Corona, to swear him into office. 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. The oath of office was administered by Associate Justice Carpio-Morales, who officially accepted Aquino’s request to swear him into office, reminiscent of the decision of Aquino’s mother, President Corazon Aquino, who in 1986, was sworn into the presidency by Associate Justice Claudio Teehankee. 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.