Former Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said on Friday rule of law in the Philippines has regressed and corruption has become more pervasive.

In a forum with the Foreign Correspondents Association of the Philippines a day after she completed her seven-year term as the chief anti-graft buster in Taguig City, Carpio said there was no much problem before in the rule of law when she joined the government in early 1970s.

"We regressed...now there seems to be a lot of problems that there on the violation of rule of law," she said.

This could have something to do with the "present crop and former crop of officials," she said.

"I don't know if it has something to do with the materialistic attitude of some officials. But definitely as compared to the 1970s, (former President Ferdinand) Marcos notwithstanding, there's not much problem in the rule of law and corruption," Morales explained.

She said if there was corruption before, it was more concentrated on a few officials.

"But now, it seems pervasive," said Morales, also a former Supreme Court Associate Justice.

The Duterte administration has been criticized for alleged failure to adhere on the rule of law amid the increasing number of individuals, reaching over 4,000, who have been killed in the war on drugs since July 2016.

Morales was replaced by former Associate Justice Samuel Martires.

The former Ombudsman refused to judge Martires if he would be fair on his new job.

"I will give him the benefit of the doubt, but if by your account he was partial to some people, there is always this thing called turning a new leaf," Morales said.

Morales previously earned the ire of President Rodrigo Duterte, particularly when her office tried to investigate him and Davao City Mayor Sara Duterte-Carpio for their alleged ill-gotten wealth.

Morales inhibited from the investigation. Overall Deputy Ombudsman Arthur Carandang conducted the probe, resulting to the order of Malacanang early this year to suspend him for 90 days for disclosing Duterte's alleged unauthenticated bank transactions from the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).

But Morales did not effect Carandang's suspension, citing a jurisprudence that the Overall Deputy Ombudsman is independent of the executive branch.

Morales said she was not sure if under Martires, he would implement the suspension.

The Ombudsman's probe against Duterte and his daughter Sara was dropped last February after the AMLC refused to provide details of their bank transactions. Celerina Monte/DMS