PHILIPPINES: HUGE BACKLOG OF UNRESOLVED GRAFT CASES ASSAILED

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PUBLISHED ON December 15, 2007 AT 8:01 AM

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Senate Minority Leader Aquilino “Nene” Q. Pimentel,
Jr. (PDP-Laban) today criticized the Office of the
Ombudsman over the mounting backlog of cases that are
unresolved and pending with the agency despite the
fact that its budget and complement of investigators
have been substantially increased.

Pimentel said official records from the Ombudsman
showed that the total number of cases pending with the
anti-graft body has risen from 18,200 by the end of
2006 to 21,065 by June 30, 2007.

Reminding the Ombudsman about the dictum that “justice
delayed is justice denied,” Pimentel said it is
sitting on many of these cases for a number of years
“without any sign of resolution in sight.” The piling
up of these cases may not necessarily be the fault of
the incumbent Ombudsman who has been in office for
barely two years.

“There are certain limitations under which the Office
of the Ombudsman operates. Nonetheless, it is
important that the people are made aware that cases
are being disposed of as fast and as reasonably as can
be done without giving the impression that only the
cases that are against the critics of the government
are attended to with some dispatch while those against
people who are always toeing the administration line
would be wallowing in the mire of forgetfulness,” the
minority leader said.

Pimentel said that during the Senate plenary debate on
the 2008 national budget, the Office of the Ombudsman
reasoned out that the slow disposition of cases was
due to “lack of personnel” and that many of them being
“politically motivated.”

But he said that Malacañang, through Cabinet Secretary
Ricardo Saludo, has just reported that the budget
Office of the Ombudsman has been doubled to P1 billion
a year which enabled it to hire 200 more graft
investigators and 50 prosecutors starting 2006.

Aside from this, the Office of the Ombudsman received
a large share of the P2 billion funding for the
anti-graft campaign granted by the United States
through its Millennium Development Account last year.

As for the claim that several of the graft complaints
have been filed by politicians or their followers to
harass their political opponents, Pimentel said that
is “no excuse” for not acting on the cases.

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PHILIPPINES: HUGE BACKLOG OF UNRESOLVED GRAFT CASES ASSAILED

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