Sandigan records show Ombudsman had low conviction rate

MANILA, Philippines - Sandiganbayan records showed Thursday that the Office of the Ombudsman scored only a total of 18 convictions over seven months versus 174 total cases disposed. A simple computation would show that it is only equivalent to a conviction rate of only 10.34 percent which differed from the Office of the Ombudsman data of a 26.73 percent conviction rating. Some members of the anti-graft court statisticians seem perplexed, adding that they have have received inquiries about the discrepancy and have tried to get the Office of the Ombudsman to correct its computations. Their appeals were fruitless. “We have called their attention to the fact that their reports were misrepresenting the actual data but they have made no corrections. Even representatives of foreign anti-corruption groups who came here were surprised that the Ombudsman’s computations ignored the withdrawn and dismissed cases," a court officer said. In its report released last September 1, the Ombudsman claimed its conviction rating month by month stood at 25 percent in January; 9.01 percent in February; 66.67 percent in March; 4.54 percent in April; 3.33 percent in May; 7.14 percent in June and 71.43 percent in July. These figures translate to a 26.73 percent conviction rating for the first seven months of the year. A sample calculation from the Office of the Ombudsman showed it only computed the number of defendants who were convicted (17) and those who pleaded guilty to criminal charges (1) against the total number of acquittals (74). The system ignored the number of cases dismissed (with or without trial) (75), withdrawn by the prosecutors (17), remanded to another court (1), returned to the Ombudsman for reinvestigation (0) or archived (12). The Ombudsman’s report included a 76 percent conviction rate for the month of August but the Sandiganbayan Records Division is still waiting for reports for the said month from its five divisions. In her July 28 State of the Nation Address, President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo lauded the Ombudsman saying that its ‘conviction rate has increased 500 percent’. Arroyo did not mention the basis for the figure. - GMANews.TV