YEARENDER 2012

THE filing of corruption charges against former president and now Rep. Gloria Arroyo of Pampanga province should be considered as the most significant accomplishment of the Office of the Ombudsman this year.

Although an appointee of President Benigno Aquino 3rd, Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales and her agency showed impartiality in their resolution of the Arroyo cases, which were considered the most controversial and sensitive of cases filed before the office.

In March, the Ombudsman junked the plunder case against Arroyo on the $329-million national broadband network deal as the evidence presented is weak to prop up a plunder case.

In October, the plunder charges against the former leader regarding the alleged misuse of the P530.82-million Overseas Workers Welfare Administration fund was also dropped for lack of sufficient evidence.

However, the Ombudsman ordered the filing of charges against Arroyo, former officials of the Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office (PCSO), and high-ranking executives of the Commission on Audit before the Sandiganbayan in the P366-million PCSO fund scam.

Other big fishes
Aside from the cases of the Pampanga lawmaker, also worthy to recall is the lodging of graft cases against Cebu Gov. Gwendolyn “Gwen” Garcia over the P99-million Balili estate.

As a result, the Department of Interior and the Local Government issued a suspension order against Garcia that triggered recent protest actions in the Cebu provincial capitol.

Morales also ordered the preventive suspension of former lawmaker and now presidential adviser for environmental protection Nereus Acosta.

Morales, who told the media in 2011 that she is “impervious to pressure,” displayed such character when she went all out in prosecuting the case of former governor of Isabela province and now Election Commissioner Ma. Gracia Cielo “Grace” Padaca.

Pending cases
The Ombudsman also promised in 2011 “zero backlog” and followed it through in 2012.

Morales ordered the filing of murder charges against Captain Ricardo Ordoñez and nine other Philippine Navy officials for the alleged killing of Navy ensign Philip Pestaño in 1995.

She overturned the suicide angle and resolved that Pestaño could not have killed himself. The Ombudsman said that Ordoñez and nine others conspired to slay the ensign who tried to block cargo shipments believed to be illegally cut logs, sacks of shabu worth billions and military weapons allegedly being sold to terrorist group Abu Sayyaf.

The most recent feat of the Ombudsman was the resolution of the 79-count graft cases against former Finance undersecretary Antonio Belicena involving the grant of tax credit certificates.

Public perception

For 2012, Transparency International reported in its latest Corruption Perceptions Index that the Philippines has improved in the rankings, from 134 in 2010, to 129 in 2011 and to 105 in 2012.

Although the Ombudsman is not the sole reason for the upbeat perception, being the anti-graft agency, it has its reasonable fair share of accomplishments in the campaign against corruption.

The Makati Business Club, in its survey on government service performance, gave better satisfaction ratings for the Ombudsman as it moved up to the 18th place from 44th place.

With a 70.9 percent satisfaction rate and 23.6 percent dissatisfaction rate, the Ombudsman garnered a 47.3-percent net satisfaction rate.

The result of this year’s survey by the business club was in stark contrast to last year’s -51.4-percent net satisfaction rating, where 67.7 percent of those surveyed were dissatisfied and only 16.2 percent were satisfied.

2012 has been a good year for the Office of the Ombudsman. With a good follow-through this year, the agency is headed for bigger accomplishments as it slowly rids the government of erring and corrupt officials.