Ombud asks public to report irregularities

CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman urged the public to report irregularities of government officials as a way to fight against corruption.

“Dapat may magreklamo, hindi natin dapat payagan na manakawan tayo. Dapat pangalagaan natin ito dahil para iyan sa future ng mga kabataan,” Visayas Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol said during a press conference yesterday at the Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Cebu Office

Apostol stressed that he wants to change the impression of the public that his office could not be trusted and can be influenced with money.

“Matindi iyong efforts namin, but hindi pa rin nakikita ang difference because we lack public support. Everybody should be willing to report a public official’s irregularity since the Office of the Ombudsman has the power to dismiss any public official,” said Apostol.

Apostol pointed out that most of the cases they filed through media reports prospered like the Balili case, the lamppost issue and the Girl Scouts scam.

He also disclosed yesterday that 50 percent of the graft and corruption cases they handled involve employees and officials of LGUs while the Department of Education also has the most number of cases among national agencies.

But he clarified that this does not mean that the LGUs and DepEd are the most corrupt but this is because they have the most number of employees.

“Hindi naman sila ang talagang most corrupt pero dahil sa dami nila, maraming kasong na-file against them compared to other agencies,” Apostol said.

Apostol said the priorities of his office for 2011 to 2018 include disposition of high profile cases of high ranking officials, cases involving money of at least 10 million pesos, celebrated cases and grand corruption cases.

Also part of their priorities are having a zero backlog of cases, improved survival rate of fact-finding, enforced monitoring of referred cases, improved responsiveness of public assistance, improved anti-corruption policy and program coordination among sectors, rationalization of the functional structure of the office and enhanced transparency and credibility.

Apostol is grateful of the linkages that they have with government sectors through the Visayas Executive Council Leaders (VECL), Visayas Resident Ombudsmen Council Leaders (VROCL) and local government units (LGUs) for the installation of resident ombudsmen as well as to the regional directors.

The Ombudsman has also partners with the youth sector, Campus Integrity Crusaders and the media.  (FREEMAN)