Carpio-Morales readying 7-year roadmap vs graft, corruption

MANILA, Philippines - Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales will present this month a roadmap setting the anti-graft agency’s programs and policies that would help fight graft and corruption in government for the next seven years.

Assistant Ombudsman Asryman Rafanan, the Ombudsman’s spokesman, said Morales, a retired Supreme Court associate justice, would finally reveal her plans by the end of the month.

Rafanan said during the anti-graft agency’s weekly radio program aired over dzRB yesterday that Morales called for a review of all existing programs and policies at the Office of the Ombudsman during her first two months in office.

He said strategic planning workshops, meetings, briefings, and consultations have been conducted in the past weeks to formulate concrete plans, which would determine how the fight against graft and corruption will be carried out.

Rafanan, who again asked the public and media for more understanding and patience, said a “new Office of the Ombudsman” with a clear roadmap would be unveiled after strategic planning exercises end with an executive meeting on Sept. 23.

He said Morales is reviewing the status of some 11,000 pending cases that have remained unresolved.

Rafanan said the Ombudsman herself ordered the concerned officials and personnel to submit reports in order to determine what the problem is.

He said Morales is personally looking into records to answer questions like, “Why the delay? Where is the bottleneck? Who makes the delays? Who’s handling the case?”

Rafanan said that even though the country’s chief Ombudsman has been quiet since she assumed her post more than a month ago, she has been working very hard, coming to work before 7 a.m. everyday.

He said Morales is even handling written complaints on delayed resolution of cases herself by writing letters to the concerned officials and giving them seven days to explain.

Meanwhile, the Ombudsman had also ordered officials and employees of the anti-graft agency to stop using social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter to make them concentrate on their jobs.

Workers at the Ombudsman were earlier directed to refrain from coming to work late or leaving the office early.

A powerful firewall maintained by the agency’s Management Information System Services (MISS) department automatically blocks any attempt to visit social networking sites.

Computers at the agency’s central office in Quezon City are not even allowed to access websites on travel, entertainment, and other sites not related to their work to prevent personnel from surfing the Internet during office hours.

Lawyer Rawnsle Lopez, spokesperson for Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro, said the MISS is very strict in enforcing the firewall against social networking sites.

The Field Investigation Office (FIO) composed of prosecutors, however, has several computers that could access Facebook, Twitter, and other similar sites that would help in their investigation of cases.

Lopez said most employees support the stricter punctuality rules at the agency to instill discipline among personnel.

Rafanan said the imposition of new rules on office hours was a result of a surprise ocular inspection, during which Morales discovered that many employees were not manning their desks or stations.

Director Cezar Tirol II explained that before Morales became the new Ombudsman last Aug. 1, the anti-graft agency was operating under a flexi-time policy, which is allowed by the Civil Service Commission (CSC).

He, however, admitted that there is a need to review that practice, which previously allowed officials and employees to adjust their office schedules.

Morales issued Office Circular No. 41 stating that effective Sept. 1 all personnel would observe uniform working hours, which means that no one is allowed to be a minute late or go home before 5 p.m.

Most officials and personnel lauded the move while some complained of alleged “martial law” rules which will affect the work of field investigators and other employees, especially lawyers, who are required by their job descriptions to go out and find evidence and witnesses against erring government officials even beyond office hours.