Prosecution and Litigation Office long overdue

COA (Commission on Audit) Resolution No. 2014-009 delivered, on Feb. 14, 2014, a Valentine’s Day gift for honest public officials and employees: It created the Prosecution and Litigation Office (PLO), which was long overdue. The PLO should have been made flesh in the early 1990s, when graft and corruption was endemic and the prevailing pastime of government officials, such that no one bothered to report nefarious activities.

I am a retired municipal employee and I have witnessed and observed irregularities committed by executives/officials who were able to escape prosecution and conviction owing to the auditors’ lackluster performance in the pursuit of their sworn duties and responsibilities.

Most anomalies were brazenly committed on various fronts—ranging from infrastructure projects to maintenance, to office operating expenses. The culprits simply ignored the warnings and threats of the auditors, knowing that the latter would not be able to make good their threats anyway.

However, a complement of 32 PLO lawyers is not enough to fully serve the entire Philippines; they should be 75 or even 100 lawyers, and funding should not be a problem, considering the misuse of government funds, notably PCSO (Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office), Malampaya and DAP (Disbursement Acceleration Program) funds.

The antidote and defining provision of the resolution is “in the performance of (the Commission on Audit’s) mandate, various irregularities are uncovered that warrant the filing of criminal, civil or administrative complaints against erring public officials and private individuals involved.”

—FRANK C. CABANATAN,

Lugay Street, Guiuan,

Eastern Samar