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Lawyer Ernesto Francisco on Wednesday filed an urgent
Omnibus Motion for the inhibition of overall Deputy Ombudsman
Orlando Casimiro and the body’s suspension of its probe into the
scandal-ridden national broadband deal, until the Senate finishes
its own investigation.
Casimiro had chaired the
investigation of the poll automation controversy, conducted similar
“public hearings,” but eventually cleared all officials of the
Commission on Elections, including former chairman Benjamin Abalos,
even while an Ombudsman lawyer had recommended that all the
respondents be held criminally, administratively and civilly
liable,” Francisco said in a statement.
Francisco added the Ombudsman
should secure all the records of the Senate investigation for it to
conduct an honest to goodness probe of the aborted $330-million
broadband deal, but this was not done.
“There is a general distrust
for the Ombudsman and it is the perception of many that the
actuations of the Ombudsman in connection with the ZTE-NBN scam have
all the makings of a moro-moro [farcical play], in a manner of
speaking,” Francisco warned.
Francisco said that this became
very clear at the “preliminary investigation/clarificatory”
hearing hastily called by the Ombudsman on February 18, 2008, when
the Panel of Investigators created by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez
was forced to admit upon questioning that the Ombudsman, on its own,
did not even bother to secure the records of the Senate
investigation.
“This omission is highly
irregular, considering that the Ombudsman claimed that it had
already conducted fact-finding in the instant case and related cases
and thus, the 18 February 2008 hearing was supposed to be a
‘preliminary investigation/clarificatory’ hearing already,”
Francisco said.
Franciso also argued that
Casimiro has compelling reasons to inhibit himself from
participating in the probe of the broadband case.
“Overall Deputy Ombudsman
Casimiro’s conduct in the past, particularly as regards his
handling of the case concerning the P1.3-billion poll automation
deal controversy involving the Mega Pacific consortium, creates
doubt as regards his capability to act judiciously and with fairness
and impartiality,” Francisco said.
--James Konstantin Galvez
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