In RP, it’s the journalists who teach gov’t probers investigative skills

Government investigators are learning a trick or two in sleuthing skills from investigative journalists.

This was revealed by Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo yesterday, on the occasion of the 16th anniversary of the agency, which is tasked to stamp out corruption in the bureaucracy.

"We have to learn from their experience. We need hands-on experience. If the investigative team in the TV stations can do it, why can’t we ?" Marcelo said, adding his office will be "inviting more media men" to share their exploits and train government probers.

A woman member of the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism became their first "lecturer" in their forum last March, Marcelo said.

Marcelo disclosed this in the light of the lack of probers in their agency, where the salary pales in comparison with that of lawyers in private practice. The Ombudsman only has 37 investigators to monitor the 1.5 million-strong bureaucracy.

He also challenged the newly elected members of Congress to show their resolve to fight widespread corruption, and support their forthcoming draft measure that seeks to create a true-blue investigative team that would go after erring public officials.

In his discussions with the finance department, the Presidential Anti-Graft Commission and Transparency International, Marcelo said they found out the government has too many overlapping investigative bodies but is short on manpower.

"We need to create an investigative unit to gather evidence. We need to build up the investigative capability of the Ombudsman," he stressed,

Their office, he said, should not be like a fiscal’s office that merely receives evidence, but should also have the power to go further and investigate malfeasance and misfeasance.

An estimated P1 billion budget is needed, he noted, for the agency to beef up its anti-corruption drive, particularly the lifestyle check where they achieved "limited success."

With the Ombudsman’s meager resources, indicting officials from graft-ridden Bureau of Internal Revenue and Customs would be considered a success.

"It’s a limited success but it’s effective as far as the lifestyle check is concerned. In fact this is more comprehensive than the previous one. Our focus is on the BIR and Customs areas. These are our strategic cases," Marcelo said.

"If we can help clean these agencies, then our revenues would be higher. And there could be more money against corruption. We can have a portion of that to expand our program," he said. This would in effect help the government lessen, if not rid bureaucratic corruption.

Marcelo highlighted the case of Hong Kong’s world-renowned anti-corruption watchdog, which employs 800 government investigators to look after 175,000 government employees and officials.

Nevertheless he said the Ombudsman has some 250 applicants, all new lawyers, who want to become investigators. He said they will hire only 50 of them and assured that their benefits would not be far behind those in private practice.