Ombudsman: Convictions up 75%  

The Sandiganbayan meted out convictions for the accused in 81 of 108 cases decided in the first six months of this year, the Office of the Ombudsman has said as it showed its conviction rate rising to 75 percent from 45 percent.

In a performance report published on its website, the Ombudsman also said 27 of the cases  the anti-graft court ruled upon resulted in acquittals.

The Ombudsman added that it was able to resolve 2,940 complaints or 27 percent of its total workload of 11,056 complaints in the first six months of this year.

“Ang Office of the Ombudsman ay nagpapatuloy sa pagpapatupad sa kanyang mandato na labanan ang corruption dito sa Pilipinas. We are aggressively pursuing the cases filed in courts as well as ensuring the enforcement of administrative decisions of the dismissal and sanctions issued by the Ombudsman,” Deputy Ombudsman for Luzon Gerard Mosquera said in an interview on the sidelines of the Philippine Data Summit 2015 in Quezon City.

The Ombudsman said it disposed of 1,476 criminal complaints, 1,456 administrative cases and eight civil forfeiture of assets.

Most of the disposed cases (71 percent) were dismissed mainly due to insufficiency of evidence.

Citing records of the Ombudsman’s Statistical and Monitoring Division, the anti-graft body said its performance in the first half of this year improved as compared to the same period last year when it only disposed 22 percent of its workload.

The Ombudsman Visayas emerged as the top performer for the 1st half of 2015 with 47 percent of its total workload disposed, followed by Ombudsman Mindanao (41 percent), Central Office (24 percent), Luzon (22 percent) and Military and Other Law Enforcement Offices (MOLEO, 19 percent).

Twelve percent of the cases involved the imposition of penaties and of this chunk of workload, 41 percent involved suspension penalties while 31 involved dismissal from service.

Another 12 percent of the disposed cases were for filing before regular courts while three percent were for the anti-graft court, the Sandiganbayan.

Fewer cases filed

While the total number of complaints resolved by the Ombudsman has increased in the first half of the year, fewer cases were filed before the Sandiganbayan against public officials.

According to the report, a total of 134 cases were filed by the Ombudsman’s Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP) before the Sandiganbayan in the first half of the year – 54 percent lower than the 290 cases filed in the same period in 2014.

The Ombudsman, however, noted that 18 percent or 168 out of 918 individuals charged this year were high-ranking officials.

The top five government agencies with the highest number of cases filed by the Ombudsman before the Sandiganbayan in 2015 were the House of Representatives (58 cases), local government units (34 cases), Department of Education (11 cases), Department of Environment and Natural Resources (5 cases) and Department of Public Works and Highways (4 cases).

The most charges against the public officials brought to court were graft, malversation and direct bribery.

Mosquera said the anti-graft body is also confident that it will be able to secure the conviction of high-ranking officials facing charged before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the pork barrel scam.

“We expect favorable outcomes in the cases we filed in court… We are confident that our prosecutors will be able to secure favorable outcome,” Mosquera said.

The personalities currently facing charges in connection with the pork barrel scam were Senators Juan Ponce Enrile, Jinggoy Estrada and Ramon Bong Revilla Jr. as well as former Masbate Representative and incumbent Masbate Gov. Rizalina Seachon-Lanete, former Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC) party-list Rep. Edgar Valdez, former Benguet Rep. Samuel Dangwa, former Cagayan De Oro Rep. Constantino Jaraula and former Agusan Del Sur Rep. Rodolfo Plaza.  — ELR, GMA News