Ombudsman’s mind-boggling evaluation of Napoles cases

Stephen Monsanto misread Ombudsman Conchita Carpio Morales (“Morales ‘knows whereof she speaks,’” Letters, 9/27/13) who was supposed to have said it would take her office less than a year to conduct the preliminary investigation on the plunder charges over the P10-billion pork barrel scam filed by the Department of Justice against Janet-Lim Napoles, et al. (“‘Surprise for Pinoys: Case over in less than one year,’” Front Page, 9/20/13). At first, we also thought so ourselves, but in light of the fact that the Ombudsman has not issued any subpoena to any of the respondents to date, it is clear that no preliminary investigation has commenced yet.

The cases are still in that stage called “evaluation” where her investigators are working their butts off to determine whether or not the charges should be “dismissed outright for want of palpable merit.” What the Ombudsman promised was only to finish such “evaluation” in less than a year. In other words, her office is not recognizing the fact that it had taken the DOJ, through the National Bureau of Investigation, months to gather the pieces of evidence and had painstakingly evaluated their worth. No less than the justice secretary has found them sufficiently meritorious to warrant formal filing of the charges.

Why the Ombudsman has to go through another ritual of having the “truckloads” of evidence “evaluated” before conducting the preliminary investigation is mind-boggling. It is absolutely unnecessary and a total waste of precious time. We are not saying here that the Ombudsman should just conduct  preliminary investigations automatically without first “evaluating” the merits of all accusations lodged with her office. Of course, not. What we are dealing with here are charges that have already undergone extensive and exhaustive vetting by the primary investigating agency of the government and have passed scrutiny by the justice secretary. Those are not just charges filed by some “walk-in” crackpots which must be properly evaluated in fairness to the persons being charged, who have the right not to be bothered by “palpably” unfounded accusations.

Time is of the essence! Already, the Napoleses are said to be disposing of their assets left and right. They are able to do that because the plunder cases are not yet in the Sandiganbayan which alone has the authority to issue writs of attachment to preserve and recover the loot. The Ombudsman should start the preliminary investigation already and finish it as soon as possible. If there is probable cause, plunder cases should be filed with the Sandiganbayan posthaste to set the attachment proceedings in motion. Enough of the shilly-shallying!

—GEORGE DEL MAR,

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