Ombudsman targets zero backlog by Oct

CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman wants to have a zero back log by October 31 this year, according to Visayas Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol yesterday.

Apostol is optimistic that they could achieve this target since his lawyers are committed to this goal.

“I am optimistic that we could achieve this target by October because my lawyers have already committed and that they made a promise to the office,” said Apostol during a press conference yesterday at the Philippine Information Agency (PIA)-Cebu office.

Apostol said that the target aims to eradicate all cases from 2012 and downwards and what will be left are cases in 2013.

This way, they seek to end the culture of delay that erodes public trust and credibility of the Ombudsman’s process, he said.  Apostol yesterday showed statistics in his office’s disposal of cases.

For fact-finding investigation, in 2012 they disposed 2,672 while in the first six months of 2013, they already disposed 929 cases while for the pending cases in 2012 they have 1,163 and by 2013 they now only have 801.

For the preliminary investigation, they disposed 465 cases in 2012 and just for the six months this year, they already disposed 393 cases and with 439 pending cases in 2012, they have 393 in 2013.

For administrative adjudication, they disposed 543 cases as of 2012 and this year, they were able to dispose 577. From 483 pending cases in 2012, they now have 408 pending cases in 2013.

Apostol said that out of the 79 criminal cases prosecuted in 2012, the Office of the Ombudsman convicted 71 and dismissed eight cases. For this year, out of the 17 criminal cases prosecuted, they had convicted 15 and dismissed two cases.

“With the improvement that we have, I am very optimistic that we could hit our target for the zero backlog and iyong mga 2013 or recent cases na lang ang matitira,” Apostol said.  (FREEMAN)