Hire more lawyers, prosecutors urge

The Office of the Special Prosecutor will be hiring more lawyers to help prosecute more pending cases and win more convictions.

Additional lawyers would also help the prosecutors to focus their efforts on fewer cases, according to Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa Ignacio.

"The problem in the past was caused mostly by prosecutors being spread too thinly over too many cases," Villa Ignacio said.

"You have to take into consideration that each prosecutor does his own research, tracks down evidence and witnesses, and writes his own motions and pleadings, all within a very limited budget. We are trying to do something about that," he said.

Despite the setback on manpower, the OSP’s conviction rate went up by 36 percent in the first ten months of this year, Villa Ignacio said.

He said the OSP intends to hit a 50-percent conviction rate by next year.

On the other hand, the Sandiganbayan’s Fourth Division now leads the anti-graft court’s five divisions in scoring the total number of convictions.

In a span of 15 months, between August 2004 and October 2005, the Fourth Division scored 25 convictions.

Among those convicted were 42 government officials and two private individuals.

The high officials convicted include San Fernando, Pampanga regional trial court Judge Hermin Arceo on charges of sexual harassment and acts of lasciviousness and former University of the Philippines chancellor Roger Posadas who was found guilty of graft. — Mike Frialde