PHILIPPINES: HUGE BACKLOG OF UNRESOLVED GRAFT CASES ASSAILED

“If the cases are one of harassment, they should be
dismissed. In the matter of stealing public funds,
usually the ones who would have the guts to bring them
to the Ombudsman would be the political opponents of
the alleged culprits because the ordinary man on the
street is apathetic,” he said.

“Therefore the fact that a case is filed by political
opponents does not ipso facto mean that the case has
no merit. If the case was found to have no merit, then
the obligation of the Ombudsman is to dismiss it. That
is to be expected. But to allow the case to languish
in the bowels of the bureaucracy of the Ombudsman’s
office would, to my mind, add to the injustice of it
all.”

The unresolved high-profile cases, involving prominent
personalities, include the P2.3 billion fertilizer
fund scam, the misuse of the multi-billion peso road
users tax proceeds, the illegal diversion of quarry
fee collection in Pampanga and the IMPSA bribery
scandal.

Official records reveal that there were 18,200 pending
graft cases as of Dec. 31, 2006. But in the succeeding
months of 2007 the Ombudsman received 4, 328 more
cases. It filed 35 new cases with the Sandiganbayan
and 155 others with the regular courts. Within the
same period 123 cases were dismissed and 150 decided
with sanctions or conviction. The number of unresolved
cases was placed at 21,064 as of June 30, 2007.

Pimentel said these data seem to belie the
administration’s claim that the pace of resolution of
graft cases has significantly improved.
-o0o-

IMPORTANT NOTICE: INBOX is an archive of press releases, statements, announcements, letters to the editors, and manifestos sent to PinoyPress for publication. Please email your materials to pinoypress @ gmail.com. PinoyPress is not responsible for the content of these materials. The opinion expessed in these items does not reflect those of PinoyPress and its staff. Please refer to our terms of use/disclaimer.