The House of Representatives is reportedly set to investigate the purchase of allegedly substandard school furniture but no one appears to be clapping. Is it because people have lost faith in investigations regardless of who conducts them?
Congressional investigations take the cake in failure to inspire public confidence. Not far behind, though, are investigations by such agencies as the Ombudsman, which is sad because for a while there, the Ombudsman did inspire public confidence.
Our guess is that no justice system can ever be perfect in human hands. Constistency and transparency, by whose measure public confidence must pass, are perhaps too stiff and tight for the imperfections and flaws of human form and character. The Ombudsman is no exception.
Days before news of the impending House probe broke, the papers ran a story about a man questioning the conduct of an Ombudsman investigation into two unrelated but similar computer purchases — one by Rep. Raul del Mar, the other by Lapu-Lapu Mayor Arturo Radaza.
The Ombudsman threw out the del Mar case but stuck to the one by Radaza. It would have done a lot of good if the distinctions were made clear, considering that the two cases were so similar. By failing to do that, the Ombudsman only succeeded in inviting questions to itself.
One question that will hound it, as posed in the story run in another paper, is whether the Ombudsman is not being influenced by those seeking to discredit Radaza, personalities with whom the Ombudsman happens to share particular interests in, such as so-called graft-busting.
Of course the Ombudsman can insist it is impervious to any and all influences. But when words are ranged against actions, it is always the latter that seems more compelling. And right now, the word of the Ombudsman is nowhere near as compelling as its actions.
And it can only get worse, considering that elections are just around the corner and it is so easy to make up charges against anyone. If it values its worth, the Ombudsman must not allow itself to be used, under any pretext, for the obvious political purposes of others.
But if the Ombudsman cannot see what is in plain sight to everyone else, then trying to inspire confidence is all a waste of time. One cannot inspire confidence if the impression it gives is an uncanny capacity to be unwittingly led by the nose.