Ombudsman: Is there a list of pending cases?

Today, the start of the Holy Week, we bring you a replay of our show on Lenten Reflections by Fr. Dondon Aquino who gave us a deep insight of why we need to enter into the Holy Week season and commune with God. While the majority of Filipinos are Catholics, many of us use the Holy Week season for vacation or reunion. Very few use the Holy Week to reunite with the Lord by offering sacrifices and take a spiritual vacation, which is a vacation away from this very material earth. Watch Fr. Dondon Aquino help you with your Lenten Reflection on SkyCable's channel 15 at 8:00PM.

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This is the first column I made since I got back to Cebu last Thursday evening. I don't write columns over the weekend, except my Sunday religious reflections. But while last Friday (or was it last Thursday) was the deadline of the filing of candidacies for local government officials, a more dramatic turnout of events overtook that piece of news when we read that the Ombudsman Maria Merceditas N. Gutierrez placed the alleged perpetrators of this so-called Lamppost scam, Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza and Mandaue City Mayor Teddy Ouano and 17 other local and Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) officials under a six-month preventive suspension.

According to the reports we read, the dome-like lamppost should have only cost P11,750, but this cost apparently ballooned to P50,000 per post, while a single arm post should have only cost P7,536 shoot up to P72,500. In fairness to those accused, there are still many unseen details that most of the people haven't seen especially in a DPWH contract. But it is a step in the right direction. Government officials suspected any wrongdoing should be suspended to prevent them from using their office to stop investigators from uncovering anything connected to the case.

I can understand why Mayor Teddy Ouano is clinging to his post and asking the Court of Appeals (CA) to stop the suspension because he insists that he is innocent of this crime. It is his right to do so. But his doing so is counterproductive as it runs against the tide of the court of public opinion. But Mayor Arturo Radaza (We wrote about him and his very celebrated case against the King brothers and even asked for his suspension) faced his suspension and accepted it. All the accused of this scam are still considered by our laws as innocent until their guilt is proven!

While many people hailed the move of the Ombudsman in suspending the alleged perpetrators of this scam, I'm not really happy about this simply because, we know too well that the Ombudsman is merely playing politics and only reacted when this case became a national issue as the stories about the Lamppost scam was reported already by the national dailies. What I am worried about is this case may just end up in the dead files of the Office of the Ombudsman. Lord knows how many tons of cases are awaiting their fate in someone's desk within the Office of the Ombudsman.

One such case is the one that was also headlined here a couple of years ago, when we learned that money earmarked for the Girls Scouts of the Philippines allegedly found its way to the bank account of Rep. Clavel Asas Martinez. Public funds found in a private bank account? It's too good to be true if the Ombudsman is looking for that proverbial big fish to catch.

So how come the Office of the Ombudsman hasn't suspended Rep. Martinez, whom I just learned is now running for Vice-Governor of Cebu? Search me! The problem is, when Rep. Martinez's case was brought up to the Ombudsman's office in Manila, someone sat on it. This case is pending in that someone's office simply because Filipinos are a forgetful lot.

My good friend, Fr. Carmelo O. Diola of the Barug Pilipion-Dilaab Foundation, Inc. came up with a statement demanding that the stewards of the people's money must be accountable for it. I wholeheartedly agree with their statement; however, we shouldn't be satisfied because the Office of the Ombudsman has finally heard the people's cries for justice and suspended those government officials.

Corruption in government has always been a perennial problem. The last big corruption news about the DPWH in Cebu was the infamous P86 million Central Visayas scam about ghost deliveries way back in the 80's during the Marcos Years. Today, pundits blame the Arroyo Administration for corruption, but even if we have a new administration, you can bet that corruption will stay unless we take this fight into the doors of the Ombudsman and demand to see the long list of pending (is there such a list?) cases they have on file. Only when we see that list would we be able to size up the Ombudsman whether they are doing the job that the Filipino people mandated them to do.