MANILA, Philippines – The Office of the Ombudsman is aiming to resolve by the end of 2017 all pending complaints filed against former and incumbent lawmakers implicated in the multibillion-peso pork barrel scam.
“We’re trying to wipe out all our cases involving PDAF by end of next year. That’s our target for all the PDAF cases pending before the Office of the Ombudsman,” Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales said at a forum yesterday.
Morales was referring to the Priority Development Assistance Fund or pork barrel fund allocated to lawmakers.?At the forum, she dared her critics to file impeachment charges against her if they think she is remiss in her duties or showed bias as an ombudsman.
“If they wish to impeach me, go on baby, you can do that,” Morales said.
She said they are taking their time in fact-finding investigation and evidence gathering to ensure the conviction of erring public officials.
“We don’t file cases just for the heck of filing. We have to be very exhaustive in the evidence that we gather, so that in court we cannot say that we filed it just to cater to public expectation,” she said when asked to comment on the recent dismissal of high-profile cases filed by the ombudsman with the Sandiganbayan.
Most noteworthy of these were the plunder and graft cases filed against former president and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in connection with the alleged misuse of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO) funds and the NBN-ZTE broadband deal, respectively.?On Monday, the Sandiganbayan dismissed the plunder case filed against former agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante over the P723-million fertilizer scam “for lack of probable cause.”
“We go to court with the belief that there is probable cause. The time the case is filed in court, our investigators had already beefed up evidence through preliminary investigation. We tried our best to build our case, but it is still up to the court to decide. Unfortunately, natatalo yung iba, nanalo din naman kami sa iba (unfortunately we lose in some cases, but we also win some),” Morales said.
Although none of the lawmakers charged before the Sandiganbayan in connection with the pork barrel scam has been convicted so far, Morales said the Supreme Court dismissal of former senator Ramon “Bong” Revilla’s motion to junk the plunder case against him is an encouraging development and shows the case is strong.?It was in June 2014 when the ombudsman filed the first batch of PDAF cases before the Sandiganbayan.
The cases included that of Revilla and former senators Jinggoy Estrada and Juan Ponce Enrile, as well as alleged scam mastermind Janet Lim-Napoles.
Revilla, Estrada and Napoles remain in detention after the Sandiganbayan denied their motions for bail.
Enrile was granted bail by the SC in August 2015 on humanitarian grounds.
The ombudsman filed PDAF cases against more than a dozen former and incumbent congressmen in 2015 and early this year, including against former Customs commissioner and incumbent Muntinlupa Rep. Ruffy Biazon.
Plunder cases involving the pork barrel scam were also filed against former Masbate governor Rizalina Seachon-Lanete and former Association of Philippine Electric Cooperatives (APEC) party-list representative Edgar Valdez in February 2015.
Lanete and Valdez were granted bail by the Sandiganbayan early this year.
Among the PDAF cases pending before the ombudsman are those against Sens. Gregorio Honasan and Joel Villanueva.
Malampaya fund scam
Morales said the ombudsman aims to release before the end of this year the result of its investigation on the P900-million Malampaya fund scam.
“Hopefully, by mid-December. It’s supposed to be submitted on Dec. 15,” Morales said.
“I follow up every now and then to see to it that the Malampaya case would be resolved once and for all,” she added.
Morales said the public could expect the filing of cases in court as soon as the result of the investigation is out.