Chiz dares Ombudsman to release list of pending cases

Opposition Senator Chiz Escudero on Tuesday dared Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to release the list of cases filed with and being investigated by the Office of the Ombudsman and not a list of those they have filed in the Sandiganbayan.

"The real issue here is the cases that the Ombudsman appears to have archived for reasons only she knows. We would like to know why she has not acted on them," the senator said in a statement.

Escudero, who is chairman of the senate committee on justice and human rights, demanded an inventory of the pending cases after the anti-graft body released statistics boasting of a high conviction rate for 2008.

He explained that under the Republic Act 6670, or the Ombudsman Act of 1989, the Ombudsman is mandated to act on complaints filed in any form or manner against officers or employees of the government.

"It means that a simple text message, an anonymous letter or a phone call from an unknown person can be deemed as a complaint against government officials and should be acted upon by the Ombudsman." Escudero pointed out.

"Why then do we seldom hear from them any investigation on the corruption issues of the day such as the WB bid-rigging scandal, the fertilizer scam and the ZTE-NBN deal?" he asked.

The senator said that the people need to know what is keeping the Ombudsman busy these days.

"The people need to know what the Office of the Ombudsman is busy with nowadays. With all these congressional probes on corruption, we do not hear them making headway, especially in high-profile cases," Escudero said.