By MIKE FRIALDE
The Philippine Star
Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez yesterday said that it would be a great disservice to the public to suggest that the Office of the Ombudsman is influenced by politics.
Gutierrez, in a letter sent to The Philippine STAR, was reacting to a Newsbreak article, “Ombudsman conviction rate dips; staff demoralized,” written by Aries Rufo that was carried by the online news site.
“Our office generally welcomes media criticism, but we ask only that they be fair and objective. For media have an important role to play in a democracy, but such role is open to misuse. The article of abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak’s Aries Rufo was rather harsh in picturing me, the Ombudsman, as a bad manager,” Gutierrez said.
“Whenever it is suggested, without proof, that the Ombudsman is influenced by politics, a great disservice is done to the public because it makes the Ombudsman controversial and renders more difficult her duty to fight corruption,” Gutierrez added.
“In our filing or dismissal of cases, in our issuances of preventive suspension, and in general in our investigatory, administrative and prosecutory efforts, we are guided only by the evidence before us, not by other considerations, such as the respondents’ popularity or lack of it, or public sentiment concerning the cases,” she added.
The Newsbreak article also reported that based on data prepared by Office of the Special Prosecutor (SOP) supervising administrative officer Severo Sotto, out of 97 decided cases by the anti-graft court, only 14 led to convictions, or a 14.43 percent average from January to June this year.
In March, 21 cases led to acquittal and only one led to conviction. The May data were even worse: out of 29 decided cases, only one led to conviction.
Gutierrez, in her letter to The STAR, admitted that the Ombudsman’s conviction rate for this year had indeed dropped. However, she stressed that her office’s conviction rate, overall, has increased since she took over.
“Our conviction rate has dipped so far this year. As the popular saying goes, that is the bad news. The good news is that the office’s conviction rate, overall, has increased since I took over, as noted by the Millennium Challenge Account Threshold Program (MCATP),” she said.
Gutierrez also urged Congress to increase the budget of her office that would enable the hiring of more lawyers.
“Our Congress must increase our budget. The increase will enable us, among others, to hire more lawyers and train them in the proper skills and values needed to do the difficult work of the office,” she said.
‘He deserves it’
Meanwhile, the camp of former President Joseph Estrada said yesterday that Special Prosecutor Villa-Ignacio deserved to be kicked out from his position because “he is not a good prosecutor.”
In a telephone interview with The STAR, Estrada’s public relations officer Ferdie Ramos said he should not speak ill of Villa-Ignacio, a fraternity brother in the Alpha Phi Omega (APO).
“However, the truth is that he did not win the case against President Estrada because he is a good prosecutor. The Sandiganbayan special division was created to convict Mr. Estrada and whoever served as his prosecutor, good or not, will win the case against him. I must say that he should stop claiming fame that he was able to convict Mr. Estrada because of his legal talent. He must accept the fact that the anti-graft court special division was created to convict Mr. Estrada and being so, the prosecutor need not exert serious effort to convict him,” Ramos said.
He said Villa-Ignacio had been made a laughing stock by the defense panel during the Estrada trial because he was raising matters in court that carried no weight.
“Every hearing on President Estrada’s plunder case, we always asked the lawyers and they say that Villa-Ignacio is always out of tune,” Ramos said, adding that what the prosecutor did during the hearing were mere “antics.”
“Atty. (Jose) Flaminiano and (Prospero) Crescini always told us that the points he was raising are usually out of tune. The case against President Estrada is bound to fail, but the special court was created to convict him,” Ramos said.
But Villa-Ignacio, in an exclusive report of abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak, confirmed that a bloc identified with Gutierrez is clipping his powers and making life hard for him.
Villa-Ignacio said the group even filed a P26,000 estafa case against him before the Office of the Ombudsman’s Internal Affairs Board.
He however denied that there is a power struggle behind the conflict in the Office of the Ombudsman.
“How can they claim there is a power struggle when they’re getting all the powers and leaving none to others. They want me out by all means,” Villa-Ignacio told abs-cbnnews.com/Newsbreak.
The estafa complaint filed by Prosecutor Elvira Chua against Villa-Ignacio stemmed from a fund-raising drive that the latter initiated in 2006 for the victims of typhoon “Milenyo.”
The fund-raising drive was meant to help residents of Quezon province, one of the hardest hit by the typhoon.
Villa-Ignacio suggested that they finance the construction of a deep well.
He announced the fund-raising during a flag ceremony where Chua readily declared that she was donating P26,000.
The check was received by Villa-Ignacio, but because no contractor was willing to go to Quezon province at the time due to impassable roads, the Special Prosecutor decided to give the money to Gawad Kalinga, which was then already involved in providing shelter to typhoon victims in Quezon.
For some reason, two years after the incident, Chua decided to file an estafa case against Villa-Ignacio. The complainant submitted as part of the documents the receipt from Gawad Kalinga that the group received the money. – With reports from Jose Rodel Clapano