Vinia Datinguinoo Mukherjee: Congratulations, PCIJ! Mabuhay kayo!
Lead Philippines: But without credible mass media there, what is left to protect the people..?
vonjobi: it's juned sOniDo.
Lead Philippines: Can't believe this is still happening in the country. If the government does nothing, I won't be...
Keith Bacongco: who could we forget Alecks here in Mindanao... aside from PCIJ trainings, he also helped us a lot...

Latest Message 3 days, 15 hours ago

hopeless_race : Sana itreat naman po ng media ang hacienda luisita at mendiola massacre na parang MAGUINADANAO MASSACRE. Ipublicized ang mga katotohanan at ipakita sa tao ang karumaldumal na pinaggagawa sa mga farmers dun. Untouchable po ba sila cory at danding at hindi magawang batikusin ng media about these two massacres?
hopeless_race : Kapag napaguusapan ang mendiola at hacienda luisita massacre ay parang walang nangyari at parang hindi big deal. Anu po ba ang pinagkaiba ng dalawang nabanggit na massacre sa maguindanao massacre?
hopeless_race : Its sad that we pinoys are blind to the fact of what had happened in mendiola and hacienda luisita. Ang tanong..bakit ang media ay hindi manlang matackle ang ganitong usapin? Takot ba sila kay cory at danding?
hopeless_race : Wilkins" brand, for P1.4 billion.-1999 Sugarland Multi-Food Corp. for P2.9 billion 2001- Purefoods Corp P7 billion P60 billion Coca-Cola ... See More 2002- Cosmos Bottling Corp. from RFM Corp. for P14.1 billion October 2008- GSIS' shares in Meralco worth PHP30 Billion. December 2008- country's biggest oil refiner, Petron Corporation. international company shopping spree: Australian boutique brewer J. Boag and Son for A$96 million in 2000. $97 million for Thai Amarit Brewery Ltd $35.5 mi
hopeless_race : Gud am..glad to be back.
jr_lad : rip mr. alecks pabico. you'll be greatly missed!
sevens21 : Dati input mo lng name at SSS ID makukuha mo agad STATIC INFO...
sevens21 : tawag ka sa HOTLINE nila walang ANSWER grrr we need pa namn ng static info SSS Gising!!!
sevens21 : Gawa naman po kayo ng article about SSS. Pangit ng site nila dali ma blocked ng account
guest_899 : we must check the background of each potential candidates to avoid having another big mistake like GMA
guest_899 : congratulations to PCIJ, more power and God Bless !
jazzymuver : how did Arroyo swallow that kind of things!! how come that she just spend the money our countrymen for her own sake!!
guest_3664 : i would be glad if u can include the investigation of the manner public officials announce infra projects as per COA regulation. It is frustrating to see their faces on the tarpaulin instead of the prescribed information like name of project, date of implementation,amount of contract, source/s of fund, among other things. This is very rampant here in Marikina. Thanks and more power on your noble endeavors. We need people like you to have make our country great again.
jhanz_08 : im making research on R.A 9136...with rgards to the privatization of NPC..could someone out there can let me understand more bout this matter?why was monopoly dismantled?email me..jhanycem@yahoo.com...thanks much
erika marie : P.S.:) my paper is due next week and i do hope someone could provide me these reports coming from reliable resources thank you ulit.
erika marie : P.S.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study regarding political killings in the philippines. could someone out there please send me human rights reports under Aquino and Ramos administration. you could send it at my email: erikamariet@yahoo.com your response would surely be very much appreciated. thank you everyone. god bless.
guest_4275 : i am currently doing a study for my paper regarding political killings in the philippines. i noted that there are no human rights reports during the Aquino and Ramos administration. could someone out there please send me reports regarding these matter? i do hope these reports came from reliable resources you could send it in my email; erikamariet@yahoo.comyour response would surely be appreciated. thanks everyone. god bless.
jayson bourne : gusto ko po maging member ng PCIJ, panu po ba? may application po ba? sana mapadalhan nyo ako ng info sa email ko... www.jboxpenshoppe@yahoo.com
jayson bourne : cory is OK, but kris & Noynoy sensationalize masyado...
guest_9891 : LABAN pa rin!
meow : boycotts worked during marcos years. how about doing it now against the businesses of the con-ass congressmen?
meow : aside from 168, what other establishments can we boycott that belong to the arroyos and their cronies?
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Ombudsman: Protector of (some) people?

Posted by: Alecks P. Pabico | October 7, 2006 at 12:06 pm
Filed under: Governance, In the News

THE storm of indignation whipped up by the recent Ombudsman’s ruling absolving Commission on Elections officials of any wrongdoing in the P1.3-billion Mega Pacific contract involving the purchase of automated counting machines in 2004 has again put the so-called “Protector of the People” under the public spotlight.

For an agency that was created especially to serve as watchdog to protect the people against abuse and misuse of governmental power for personal aggrandizement, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez’s recent decision — contradicting the Supreme Court 2004 ruling and ignoring the findings of its own graft investigator — is seen as falling short of its mandate, and worse, to be protecting, not the people, but some people with very powerful connections.

Created under the 1987 Constitution, the independent Office of the Ombudsman was vested with the power to investigate and prosecute any act or omission of any public officer or employee, office or agency, when such act or omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient. Such investigatory and prosecutory powers were further affirmed by Republic Act No. 6770, the Ombudsman Act of 1989.

Of its constitutional mandate, particularly the prosecution of offenses committed by public officers and employees, Justice Reynato Puno even declared in Uy v Sandiganbayan: “(It) is one of the Ombudsman’s most important functions. In passing RA 6770, the Congress deliberately endowed the Ombudsman with such power to make him a more active and effective agent of the people in ensuring accountability in public office.”

In the same SC resolution he wrote, Puno emphasized how the Philippine Ombudsman departs from the classical Ombudsman model — the concept of which originated in Sweden in the early 19th century — whose function is merely to receive and process the people’s complaints against corrupt and abusive government personnel.

“The Philippine Ombudsman, as protector of the people, is armed with the power to prosecute erring public officers and employees, giving him an active role in the enforcement of laws on anti-graft and corrupt practices and such other offenses that may be committed by such officers and employees. The legislature has vested him with broad powers to enable him to implement his own actions.”

This is not, however, the first time that the Ombudsman has been pilloried for its perceived bias and ineffectiveness as an agency for those seeking redress for the wrongdoing of public officials.

In a three-part report written by Cecile CA Balgos in 1998, the office had been eliciting disappointment, if not contempt, since 1996, when Aniano Desierto took over Conrado Vazquez, the first post-Marcos Ombudsman. Desierto’s term, in fact, was marred by charges ranging from incompetence and inefficiency to downright corruption from no less than his colleagues at the Ombudsman’s office and fellow government officials.

His second in command, then Overall Deputy Ombudsman Francisco Villa, had exchanged charges of incompetence and misconduct wiht Desierto in the media. Desierto was also accused by then newly appointed Solicitor General Ricardo Galvez of ignoring evidence when the Ombudsman dismissed a complaint against alleged Marcos crony Herminio Disini.

The Office’s notoriety for taking a rather long time mulling over the complaints it receives is not new either.

It took the Ombudsman two years to wind up its investigation on the Comelec case, getting an ultimatum from the Supreme Court twice for the delays. But in the case of the complaint filed as early as 1990 by the Presidential Commission on Good Government (PCGG) against alleged Marcos crony Hermino Disini for violation of R.A. 3019 for “having induced then President Marcos to acquire financial and pecuniary interest” worth a total of P65.5 billion in two firms,” it took the Ombudsman all of seven years — four years for the case investigator to require five other people to submit their counter-affidavits, and another three years to rule that there was a “lack of legal and factual basis” for the charges against Disini and company.

While the Office does not have a monopoly on delay, Balgos wrote that:

it is the one institution singled out in legal circles as “Mona Lisa’s lair” because, lawyers say, the cases filed there inevitably take after a line in the 1950s ballad popularized by Nat ‘King’ Cole: “They just lie there, and they die there.” Put another way, the problem does not involve mere sluggishness. Rather, the phrase hints of non-action or no movement at all.

Yet until the recent Comelec episode, it is the Kuratong Baleleng rubout case that has been casting a long shadow on the credibility of the Office of the Ombudsman, “one stark example of everything that is wrong with the institution, and the judicial system itself.”

Eleven bank robbery suspects later identified as Kuratong Baleleng members were shot dead while in the custody of law enforcers on May 18, 1995. According to the PCIJ report:

The June 21, 1995 joint report submitted by the Senate Committees on Justice and Human Rights, Crime, and National Defense and Security would note that then Chief Supt. Jewel Canson was the acknowledged head of the joint operation that resulted in the capture of the Kuratong Baleleng gang members. Canson was also present when the van carrying the 11 men rolled out of Camp Crame as part of a 20-vehicle convoy.

But Canson’s men were not the only ones with the suspects when the shooting broke out. So too were teams that belonged to other police agencies that had participated in the operation and that were under the respective commands of Chief Supt. Panfilo Lacson of the Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC) that had Vice President Joseph Estrada as big boss, Chief Supt. Romeo Acop of the Criminal Investigation Command, and Senior Supt. Francisco Zubia of the Traffic Management Command.

Witnesses would later say Gens. Canson, Lacson and Acop, as well as Col. Zubia, were with the law enforcers who raided the gang’s Parañaque hideout just hours before the shoot-out, leading to the arrest of nine Kuratong Baleleng members. While that was going on, another team led by Police Inspector Michael Ray Aquino of the PACC was in Alabang, taking two more gang members into custody. All 11 would first land in Camp Crame, and then packed into the van that would have Commonwealth Avenue as its final stop.

In November 1995, the office of Deputy Ombudsman for Military Affairs Manuel Casaclang’s office came out with a 65-page resolution dismissing the case. The papers, which curiously lacked Casaclang’s signature, were forwarded to Desierto.

“Well, Desierto couldn’t sign it either,” said Overall Deputy Ombudsman Francisco Villa. “He asked for my help and we formed a committee to review it. We came out that there was a case (for murder). Principal si Lacson and the other generals were accessories (after the fact).”

But the Villa Panel’s findings were overruled by Desierto, who formed another review panel, this time headed by Special Prosecution Officer Roger Berbano.

Two weeks later, the Review Panel — minus Berbano, who had resigned from the prosecutor’s office on February 16 — submitted its recommendations to Desierto. Its members had failed to reach a consensus, although private prosecutors said there was a “preponderance of opinion” for the maintenance of charges as principal against Lacson and the upgrading of charges against Canson, Acop and Francisco Zubia.

But Desierto downgraded the charges against Lacson while maintaining the findings of the Villa Panel regarding Canson, Acop and Zubia. Desierto based his decision mainly on (SPO2 Eduardo) de los Reyes’s testimony at the Valentine’s Day hearing, calling it “new evidence.” Out of the 26 accused, 11 were found principal players; not one was a high-ranking officer.

With the downgrading, the case was effectively removed from the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan and transferred to the regional trial courts.

A sidelight to the Kuratong Baleleng case was a leaked information from an Ombudsman insider accusing Desierto of receiving 10 television sets from businessman Faustino ‘Pong’ Salud, who was mentioned in de los Reyes’s March 1996 affidavit as having contacted his family, claiming to represent “a group of Chinese businessmen who wanted to help” Lacson.

Desierto readily admitted getting the TVs, eight of which had been raffled off to Ombudsman personnel during their 1995 Christmas party. But Desierto said he paid for them, albeit with a hefty discount — which turned out to be 10 times more than what Salud’s firm usually gave to customers. Desierto also described Salud as a friend “of more than 20 years.”

This entry was posted on Saturday, October 7th, 2006 and is filed under Governance, In the News. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

10 people have left comments

No matter what form or system of government is in place or what office is created in the Philippines, our culture of corruption will overwhelm its righteous purpose.

Until we see a corrupt thief held accountable and executed, nothing will change in the Philippines.

ryebosco wrote on October 8, 2006 - 12:14 am | Visit Link

interesting to note that the kuratong baleleng case has been dismissed 6 different times IIRC spanning 3 different administrations (ramos, erap, GMA).

malakas kasi si lacson kay pangulo ramos, erap, at GMA kaya na-dismiss yung kaso na yan.

anyway, here’s more info on kuratong. take note that it came from a pro-lacson website.

http://www.888.ph/articles/lies1to3.php

johnmarzan wrote on October 8, 2006 - 3:34 pm | Visit Link

ombudsman lang ba? lahat na ata ng sangay ng gobyerno. take the latest verdict sa kaso nila Imelda at Lucio Tan: Not Guilty. yung sa kay Esperat naman, as usual maliliit na isda lang ang nahatulan.

iba talaga ang pinas. bagay na bagay talaga ang commercial ng SM, “We got it all”.

jr_lad wrote on October 8, 2006 - 4:46 pm | Visit Link

jr_lad,

might interest you to know that Commission on Human Rights (CHR) headed by Ms Quisumbing, knows its job and trying its best to deliver the real score inspite of pressures, whose magnitude you can only imagine.

freewheel wrote on October 8, 2006 - 5:10 pm | Visit Link

Ang sagot diyan bawasan ang batas kasi sa dami ng batas nagkakabuhol. Tigilan na ng senado ang paggawa ng batas. Ituon muna ang pansin sa pagpapatupad ng batas.

Buwagin na rin yung mga kung ano anong departmento at komisyon, Meron naman tayong mga regular na ahensya na dapat na siyang magpatupad ng mga batas na yan, tulad ng PNP, SC, NBI, Ombudsman, Barangay (na puro gastos lang). Di na rina kailanagn ang mga counsilor (sus another gastos at keekekan).
The more we simplified the system the more we can live in peace.

mac.bh wrote on October 8, 2006 - 6:22 pm | Visit Link

reading past pcij report on Ombudsman’s beginnings and character can get the uninitiated bearings derailed, so to speak.

geez!, am i getting stuff on an independent Constitutional Body or an account of Mario Puzo’s portrayal of a mafiosi operation?

by the bloody looks of it, the Office handling of its own existence is fraught with highly questionable decisions since the ’90s, and obviously in collusion with whoever occupies the Palace.

must i scaledown criticisms for the current chief since basically its been the tradition and innate to its being, to side with murderers and plunderers?

that the recent exoneration of Abalos, et al. is, but a matter of course?

madness everywhere, indeed.

freewheel wrote on October 8, 2006 - 9:30 pm | Visit Link

freewheel,

am i getting stuff on an independent Constitutional Body or an account of Mario Puzo’s portrayal of a mafiosi operation?

whaddaya mean, “portrayal”? it’s the real thing… except that the fictional capo di tutti capi of the corleone family has a semblance of honor, while the real trapo di tutti trapi squatting in malakanyanatalagayanleche has none.

ryebosco,

i hear you’re building a guillotine. might i offer my assistance?

jester-in-exile wrote on October 13, 2006 - 1:14 pm | Visit Link

Sad, indeed. No, tragic.

When the people’s watchdog is the one that needed watching.

But where does that leave us?

Do we need parallel institutions in civil society to stand side by side with our key government institutions to make governance work?

When the appointing power is misused and abused, we have no one to blame than ourselves for voting the person exercising the power to office.

Oh, pardon my slip. We might not have voted her to office after all.

danAdan wrote on October 19, 2006 - 8:04 pm | Visit Link

[...] The Ombudsman recently decided that COMELEC officials weren’t liable for the 1.3 billion-peso clusterfuck that was the election automated project. This despite the Supreme Court’s previous findings of illegality surrounding the contract. This despite the recommendations of her own investigating officer. This despite the her own resolution barely three months before her inexplicable flip-flop. [...]

The Bangus Supremacy » Certiorari wrote on October 23, 2006 - 7:35 pm | Visit Link

[...] Well, the rest is history as to what became of this office after that. In a blog entitled Ombudsman: Protector of (Some) People? in the website of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, the office was described as [...]

Francisco Agrava Villa « Francisco Agrava Villa wrote on December 11, 2008 - 6:33 am | Visit Link