Government claims improved conviction rate vs corruption

The government has claimed an improvement in its campaign to go after corrupt officials as the conviction rate in cases filed by the Office of the Ombudsman with the Sandiganbayan soared to a record-high 83.87 percent last month.

Records showed that the anti-graft office secured convictions in 52 of 62 cases at the anti-graft court, the highest obtained by the Ombudsman this year and the fourth time it surpassed the 50-percent mark.

The improved performance brought to 47.64 percent the standing cumulative conviction rate of the anti-graft office this year, or 91 convictions in 191 cases.

Among the controversial cases successfully handled by the Ombudsman in September were those of Reps. Rodolfo Valencia and Alfonso Umali Jr. of Oriental Mindoro and Mayor Wilfredo Dugayon of Pinukpuk town in Kalinga.

Valencia and Umali were convicted of graft by the fourth division of the Sandiganbayan, along with former Oriental Mindoro vice governor Pedrito Reyes and former provincial board members Jose Enriquez and Jose Leynes, for misusing public funds amounting to P2.5 million during their term at the provincial capitol 15 years ago.

The case stemmed from the anomalous contract entered into by the provincial government of Oriental Mindoro granting a P2.5-million loan to a private individual to finance the repair, operation and maintenance of his vessel in 1993.

It was filed with the Sandiganbayan in April 1997 by then Ombudsman Aniano Desierto.

The Oriental Mindoro officials were all sentenced to imprisonment of up to 10 years and the accessory penalty of perpetual disqualification from public office.

The anti-graft court, on the other hand, convicted Dugayon the other day after he was found guilty of 21 counts of violation of Batas Pambansa Blg. 22 (Anti-Bouncing Check Law) and Other Deceits under Article 318 of the Revised Penal Code (RPC).

The mayor was sentenced to imprisonment of three years along with his co-accused, former municipal treasurer Corazon Achivara.

There were 10 cases where government prosecutors lost against accused officials last month. These include decisions on two counts of graft promulgated by the second and fifth divisions of Sandiganbayan in January and February, but were only received by the Ombudsman last Sept. 17.

In August, the Ombudsman reported a conviction rate of 73.08 percent after winning 19 out of 26 cases.

For the month of July, the office reached 71.43 percent conviction rate after securing convictions in five of seven cases.

“The July 2008 conviction rate is higher by 31.43 percent compared to the 40 percent conviction rate obtained by the Office of the Ombudsman in July 2007. Likewise, the August 2008 conviction rate is 29.34 percent higher than the 46.66 percent conviction rate garnered by the office for the same month last year,” Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez said.

Gutierrez said these figures should further inspire prosecutors to double their efforts to weed out corrupt and erring officials in the government.

But she admitted that low conviction rates were recorded in the first semester of the year. The performance of the Ombudsman was at its worst this year in May when it registered a conviction rate of only 3.33 percent.

In January, the Ombudsman registered a conviction rate of 25 percent; 9.01 percent in February; 4.54 percent in April; and 7.14 percent in June.

In the first semester of the year, the Ombudsman office only registered a positive performance in March when it got 66.67-percent conviction rate after securing 10 convictions out of 15 cases.