Intentional? Martires says 'inordinate delay' caused dismissal of many Ombudsman cases

Ombudsman Samuel Martires on Thursday admitted that many of their cases had been dismissed due to "inordinate delay," which he said could be either intentional or due to a flawed culture within the agency.

“Makikita ninyo na sa ngayon ang dami naming kaso na nadi-dismiss ng Sandiganbayan or ng Supreme Court based on inordinate delay,” Maritires said in an interview on Dobol B TV.

(You can see that many cases were dismissed by the Sandiganbayan or the Supreme Court due to inordinate delay.)

“Ibig sabihin lumampas kami ng dalawang taon doon sa time frame [That means we exceeded the two-year time frame]," he added.

Martires, however, could not give a percentage on the number of cases that were dismissed due to inordinate delay.

“Either sinadya o nakasanayan ng kultura na puwedeng magdahan-dahan sa imbestigasyon ng kaso,” Martires said on the possible reasons behind the delay.

(It's either intentionally or they have become used to a culture of conducting investigations slowly.)

Martires said to address this, he has set a time frame for investigations. He said those who could not follow this will be looked into by their Internal Affairs Bureau.

“Nagsisimula na kami isa-isahin 'yung mga kaso na natutulog sa mga imbestigador [We have started looking into the cases that have been taking long with investigators],” he later added.

Facing lawmakers earlier this week, Martires admitted that his office also has corrupt employees.

Meanwhile, Martires, during the Dobol B TV interview, said they also discovered cases that were labeled but have no records.

“Meron kami na diskobre na mga kaso na mayroon lang pangalan nung kaso pero wala yung records nung kaso [We discovered cases that were labeled but had no records],” he said.

To prevent this, Martires pointed to the teaching of Good Manners and Right Conduct, which was removed as a regular subject and was integrated with other subjects, and religious studies.

“Lahat ng ating batas tungkol sa corruption are of post-factum, yung after the fact na. Kaya nga kung ito’y mapipigilan natin ang corruption through yung good manners and right conduct… through religious education, baka pagdating ng araw ay mawawala, mami-minimize natin ang corruption,” he said.

(All of our laws on corruption are post-factum or after the fact already. We can prevent corruption through GMRC… through religious education. Maybe someday corruption will be gone or minimized.) —KBK, GMA News