Martires: Corruption is becoming a fad
IN a move generally considered as ironic, the Office of the Ombudsman, the body tasked to go after government officials accused of graft and corruption, now wants Congress to stop the Commission on Audit (COA) from making public its audit findings.
Ombudsman Samuel Samuel Martires yesterday urged lawmakers to remove from the General Appropriations Act (GAA) or the annual national budget the COA requirement to publish its audit observations, saying it causes public “confusion” because the Office of the Ombudsman is accused of accepting bribes when cases are eventually dismissed for lack of merit.
“Nagko-cause po ng gulo, kasi sa pananaw ng isang tao pag nabasa niya na mayroong isang P10 million project na may konting aberya, sasabihin kaagad na itong government official ay kumikita. Hindi lang pala na-submit ang resibo (It causes issues because when someone reads that there is a P10 million project with some hitches, he’ll immediately say that this government official was bribed. Turns out a receipt was just not submitted to the COA),” he told the House budget hearing on the Ombudsman’s proposed P4.98 billion budget for 2024.
There was no immediate reaction from the COA as of press time yesterday.
Martires, who was appointed to the position in 2018 by then-President Rodrigo Duterte, lamented that when his office dismisses complaints stemming from COA reports for lack of merit, the Office of the Ombudsman easily gets pilloried in public.
“Ang sasabihin nalagyan na naman ang Ombudsman (They’ll say the Ombudsman has been bribed again),” he said. “The problem is creating an innuendo that the Ombudsman earned (bribes).”
In 2021, Martires even proposed penalties for “making commentaries” on the Statements of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of government officials and employees.
Under the Ombudsman’s Memorandum Circular No. 1., a copy of the SALN may be given only to an official or his duly authorized representative through a court order for a pending case and if the request was made by the Ombudsman’s Field Investigation Office/Bureau/Unit (FIO/FIB/FIU) “for the purpose of conducting a fact-finding investigation.”
Because of this, the public effectively loses access to the officials’ SALNs since the media has been excluded from the list of those who may be granted access through formal requests.
Martires said corruption has become “endemic” in the country “and not during our lifetime we’ll be able to solve corruption.” He admitted that the incidence of graft and corruption is rising.
“Ang corruption po ngayon sa Pilipinas ay parang nagiging fashion, it becomes a fad (Corruption now in the Philippines is becoming a fashion, it becomes a fad) because money becomes power. And if you have power, talagang sikat ka (you get really famous),” he said.
The Ombudsman believes that to fight corruption, Congress needs to pass a law to introduce the mandatory subject of good manners and right conduct in curriculums that is “God-centered.”
LOW CONVICTION RATE
Martirez also defended his office’s low conviction rate, saying the Office of the Ombudsman’s performance “should not be based on conviction because that is unfair.”
He said it is a “problem” when an accused wins an appeal before the Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court and eventually gets acquitted because the Ombudsman gets the blame.
“The rate of conviction is one aspect of our work. Our performance is rated also by the international community which is unfair to us na ang aming (that our) performance is based on the conviction rate. Hindi po kami ang husgado (We’re not the Judiary),” Martires said.
The Ombudsman was reacting to Batangas Rep. Gerville Luistro, who noted the Ombudsman’s conviction rate has been going down from 61.2% in 2020, to 42.7% in 2021, and 26.5% in 2022.
“In so far as we are concerned, there is probable cause for the filing of (criminal) information. Pero ang husgado, iba ang pananaw (But the Judiciary has a different view),” he said. “May mga abogado na taliwas ang pag-iisip sa katotohanan. May abogado na tama ang pag-iisip. Kapag nagkataon na sa tatlong huwes ng Sandiganbayan, ang isa ay taliwas ang pag-iisip, sinasabi acquittal (There are lawyers whose beliefs are opposite of the truth. There are lawyers whose minds are sound. When one among three Sandiganbayan justices has a skewed mind, he’ll go for acquittal).”
Martires also defended his office’s decision not to indict Duterte over the anomalous purchase of COVID-19 test kits from Pharmally, saying: “There is again no evidence on record that the former President is involved in the purchase of the test kits.”
The panel of prosecutors found no direct evidence that Duterte or his erstwhile adviser, Chinese businessman Michael Yang, were involved in the procurement deal with Pharmally.
The Ombudsman said only graft cases were filed against the respondents and not plunder because the Supreme Court, in the Macapagal-Arroyo case, said the plunderer must be identified.
Martirez earlier said there can be no indictment for plunder when there is no evidence to pinpoint which government official amassed unlawful gains of P50 million or more in relation to the P4.165-billion COVID test kit procurement deal.
CONFIDENTIAL FUND USE
Rep. France Castro (PL, ACT) disclosed that the Ombudsman only had an average of 40 percent utilization rate of its confidential funds in the last few years, which Martires attributed to his office’s austerity measures.
He said that Congress can just reduce the budget for confidential funds (his office is asking P51 million for 2024) by P20 million and realign it to the Maintenance Operating and Other Expenses (MOOE).
Martires said the Ombudsman can tap the help of the Intelligence Service of the Armed Forces of the Philippines (Isafp) to save funds but Castro told him the Ombudsman’s mandate would be compromised if the money is not used for its intended purpose of investigating cases of graft and corruption.
Castro also asked Martires how the confidential funds are being used and if there are receipts submitted to the COA, to which he replied: “’Pag ni-require po niyo ang isang ahensiya ng gobyerno na may confidential fund na mag-submit ng resibo ay ‘di na ho confidential fund ‘yun. (When one agency is required to submit receipts for confidential funds, that’s no longer confidential).”
Castro cited a 2015 joint circular guideline on the use of confidential funds but Martires said there was no legal requirement for the submission of receipts.
“I don’t think a receipt is important. What is needed is that we make a certification, we issue a certification to the effect that we have spent the confidential fund for purpose of investigation of cases,” Martires said.
