EDITORIAL - Tainted process

Now that cases have been filed against Cebu Governor Gwendolyn Garcia and members of the Bids and Awards Committee, the ball is now in the hands of the Preliminary Investigation and Administration Bureau of the Ombudsman Manila to probe the alleged controversy surrounding the construction of the Cebu International Convention Center.

The criminal and administrative complaints against Garcia and others were endorsed to the bureau by Ombudsman Conchita Morales after Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol did not approve the recommendation of a fact-finding panel that looked into the request of businessman Crisologo Saavedra to investigate the CICC construction.

Although there’s no need for us to question the result of the fact-finding inquiry as it has already been certified by the country’s top graft investigator, we see Apostol’s refusal to recommend it as something that tainted the process.

Now, instead of going directly against the complaints, Garcia’s camp can opt to buy time fighting against the legality of the filing. And it would then be a waste of time when the war is waged not on the real issue of the cases.

Apostol said he did not approve the recommendation of the fact-finding investigation because there were no sworn allegations, a thing that the counsel of Garcia questioned. Counsel Christina Garcia Frasco wanted to know if Apostol’s disapproval and Morales’ recommendation of the inquiry’s result mean that Apostol allowed himself to be bypassed by Morales.

The real question now is that, was the endorsement of the fact-finding team legal without the approval of Apostol? The practice, as Frasco sees it, is that the Ombudsman only approves the findings of deputy ombudsman, not of any fact-finding panel. If Frasco was correct, then there is certainly a cloud of doubt surrounding Morales’ action.

As we see it, if the investigation of the Ombudsman bureau cannot proceed on its normal course, the fault should fall on Apostol because he knows that the team’s endorsement lacks sworn allegations but never took the action to fix it.

Cebuanos have long wanted to know the real score surrounding the controversy on the CICC construction. Now that cases have already been filed, we hope that truth comes out at the soonest possible time.