What’s the Ombudsman doing about graft cases?

Finally the Senate committee on public order and dangerous drugs chaired by Sen. Grace Poe came up with a 23-page report that they submitted to the Plenary in Congress last Wednesday which said among many other things that Philippine National Police (PNP) Chief Alan Purisima should be investigated by the Office of the Ombudsman on graft and corruption charges. If you ask me... the Office of the Ombudsman, which is supposed to be a constitutionally independent body, should have long ago done its investigation against the PNP chief without the Senate asking her to do so.

Alas, with corruption charges flying around the PNP Chief and obviously because no less than Pres. Benigno “P-Noy” Aquino III has openly declared the “innocence” of his trusted PNP Chief, the Office of the Ombudsman chose to look the other way. No doubt, the Office of the Ombudsman has embraced our snail’s paced justice when the Filipino people demanded to know whether those allegations against the top PNP Chief were true or not.

No doubt, things are not running well in the Philippine government today. Please take note of the front page report from the Philippine STAR last Saturday Nov. 1 when it blared, “Palace: Probe will allow Purisima to give side.” This is proof that the Palace has already taken the side of the PNP Chief, rather than issue a news bulletin that the President should have suspended the PNP Chief based on those allegations of graft and corruption. With that said, it is incumbent upon the PNP Chief to go on voluntary leave until the Office of the Ombudsman can clear his name. It’s called delicadeza!

That’s as far as the PNP Chief is concerned. Now what about the case of Vice President Jejomar Binay? Why is this issue still being run as a media circus in the Senate Blue…err Yellow Ribbon Committee, purportedly “in-aid of legislation” or should we say, “in-aid of election?” Yes, both Senators Alan Peter Cayetano and Antonio Trillanes IV should by now do what Sen. Grace Poe has done, send this case to the Office of the Ombudsman so that these allegations of graft and corruption can be verified or validated in a court of law. No doubt, both Cayetano and Trillanes have damaged the honor and prestige of the once respected Philippine Senate.

Meanwhile, what is Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales doing about those cases? In fact we should ask her, what is she doing about all the other pending cases before her office? Twenty-eight years ago, the Filipino people trooped to EDSA to boot out the conjugal Marcos dictatorship because the Filipino people felt that there was no longer any justice in this land. Twenty-eight years later, there is still so much injustice done by supposedly honorable men and women of the political elite who arrogated for themselves public funds, thus denying the poor Filipino people the needed funds to uplift their life of misery and poverty. So what’s the Ombudsman doing huh?

This is why people with a conscience and a heart to do good for the nation are now asking that very important question, whether the presidential system of governance that we have today which is so highly centralized has done more harm than good for the nation as a whole. This is why the members of the National Transformation Council (NTC) are not looking forward to the next elections, but rather we believe that we should first adopt those important political reforms, like shifting to the parliamentary system so we will no longer have any national elections.

But what about those Senators, Congressmen and members of the Aquino Cabinet who have committed graft and corruption because of their misuse of the pork barrel or the Priority Development Assistance Program (PDAF) or the Disbursement Acceleration Program (DAP)? Are we simply going to forgive and forget that this ever happened? Because of this, let me quote a text that I got from my good friend, Rev. Greco Belgica which goes:

“The SC directed in the Belgica case in the DAP and PDAF, the investigation and prosecution of all who abused and misused public funds and ransacked the treasury through the Pork Barrel System from 1991 to the present and DAP, including the Pork filled criminal, graft and a plunderous budget that Congress passed last week is again a violation of the SC decision against the Pork Barrel System. This selective investigations including the Binay investigation is a cover up of their own criminal liabilities and a mockery of not just the laws of our land, but the dignity, intelligence and posterity of our people. Investigate and prosecute all and bring their evidences to court.”

If you didn’t know, Greco Belgica was the lead petitioner against the pork barrel and the DAP, which the SC declared as unconstitutional. So if only Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales read what the SC directed the petitioners to do…then she must follow this direction by the highest court of the land and prosecute everyone involved in the PDAF and DAP.

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