Senate eyes bill to speed up Sandigan cases

MANILA, Philippines - The Senate is set to tackle a measure that seeks to speed up the disposition of cases at the Sandiganbayan, which tries public officials for graft and corruption.

Senate President Franklin Drilon said yesterday it takes an average of seven years for the Sandiganbayan to dispose of a case – from the filing of the charges to the promulgation of judgment.

“The most potent deterrent against the spread of corruption is the certainty of punishment and expeditiousness of the proceedings, by boosting the structural capability of our anti-graft mechanisms,” he said.

Drilon co-sponsored Senate Bill 2138, which seeks to amend Republic Act 1606 or the law creating the Sandiganbayan. SB 2138 was endorsed by the committee on justice and human rights chaired by Sen. Aquilino Pimentel III.

In his co-sponsorship speech, Drilon said three changes would be introduced in the Sandiganbayan Law to bring about the faster disposition of cases.

The first innovation would allow individual members of a division to hear and receive evidence and resolve incidents arising during the session for the day in behalf of the division to which he or she belongs.

The Sandiganbayan charter currently requires the presence of all three members of a division before a case could be heard.

All three members of the division would still be required to decide the case, Drilon said.

Another suggested change would be to transfer cases classified as “minor” to regional trial courts, he said. Drilon noted that around 60 percent of cases filed before the anti-graft court are minor cases, which involve transactions or acts not exceeding P1 million.

Another proposal is for a final decision to be based on the vote of two out of three members of a division instead of a unanimous vote. Drilon said failure to reach unanimity requires the constitution of a special division of five members, the process for which would usually take four months.