Ombuds hits fiscal's bungling

CEBU, Philippines - Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol has criticized one of the ASEAN lamppost case prosecutors for telling the Sandiganbayan that they do not have evidence against all of the accused and that the filing of the information was just borne out of the pressure from the media.

Apostol said his office will no longer allow prosecutor Danilo Lopez to continue handling the case against the rest of the accused in the anti-graft case pending before the Sandiganbayan 2nd Division.

Lopez earlier told the anti-graft court that their evidence is not sufficient to sustain the finding of probable cause. 

He also said during the trial of the motion of one of the accused Isabelo Braza, to vacate the information and dismiss the case with prejudice, that the Ombudsman Visayas which conducted the preliminary investigation was only pressured by the media into filing the case even without the evidence.

Based on the court record, Lopez, manifested before the court that “based on the evidence found by the OMB investigator, as a result of which an information was filed in court, the evidence are not sufficient to sustain a finding of probable cause.”

“Because of pressure perhaps, your honor, they did not consider other evidence. There was so much pressure from the press to file the information,” Lopez said.

“Kino-condemn ko ang ganyang klaseng irresponsible statement,” said Apostol, adding that it was uncalled for for Lopez to declare in open court that they do not have evidence against all the accused.

Apostol said that they will no longer allow him handle the case against the other accused and he is considering asking Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to relieve Lopez from the case.

“Ang Visayas hindi papayag na siya pa ang mag-prosecute,” Apostol said.

To ensure the proper prosecution of the lamppost cases, Apostol said he is looking into the possibility of sending his prosecutors from Cebu as collaborating prosecutors.

A source told The Freeman that Gutierrez has already asked Assistant Ombudsman Virginia Palanca-Santiago to help in the prosecution. According to the source, Manila prosecutors admitted that they do not understand the evidence against the accused because most of them are very technical.

The source, who is an experienced investigator, believes that this may be the reason why Lopez told the court that they do not have evidence against the accused.

Apostol insisted that they have strong evidence against all the accused. Even without the alleged falsified importation documents which Braza questioned why it was made as basis by the Ombudsman in filing the case, Apostol said they can still prove that there was overpricing.

Apostol said that Braza’s claim that the importation documents were spurious has not been proven yet. — Fred P. Languido/BRP   (THE FREEMAN)