THE Sandiganbayan received only 28 new cases in the first half of 2025, a 75 percent drop despite massive corruption in government agencies being exposed left and right.
The total of 28 cases, fewer than five each month, showed a sharp decline compared to 112 new cases received by the special anti-graft court for the same period last year.
Sandiganbayan’s caseload comes from the Office of the Ombudsman. While the anti-corruption body found probable cause for criminal indictments in 123 cases from January to June 2025, most of these were filed with the regional trial courts.
Based on the 22-page case statistics released by the court’s Judicial Records Section, new cases reaching the Sandiganbayan have been reduced to a trickle after 2018 when 739 new cases landed on its docket.
The number nosedived to 198 cases in 2019, 117 in 2020, 163 in 2021, 240 in 2022, 263 in 2023, and 138 in 2024.
Republic Act No. 10660 is partly to blame after it redefined the court’s jurisdiction over criminal cases involving erring public officials.
In September 2024, the Ombudsman, the Department of Justice, and several senators contradicted each other over the question of which court should have jurisdiction over the case of former Bamban, Tarlac mayor Alice Guo, who was accused of being a Chinese national involved in illegal operations of Philippine Offshore Gaming Operations (POGO).
Guo’s case eventually landed with the RTC Capas, Tarlac, until it was transferred to the Valenzuela City RTC on orders of the Supreme Court.
On July 21, 2025, the Sandiganbayan Seventh Division issued a 43-page resolution wherein it called out the Ombudsman for a “flawed interpretation” of RA 10660 when it decided to file the multi-billion Pharmally corruption cases with the Manila RTC, which then transferred the case to the Malolos RTC in Bulacan.
The Sandiganbayan said only cases considered “minor” should be filed with the RTC, whereas cases like the Pharmally hospital protective gear procurement scam involving billions of public funds that in no way could be defined as minor should be filed before it.
It was not just the number of incoming cases that showed a sharp decline, however.
The anti-graft court’s 254 disposed cases in the first six months of 2025 likewise paled in comparison to 854 cases resolved for the same period in 2024.
