CEBU CITY, Philippines - A three-year-old circular has been tagged as a possible reason why cases filed with the Ombudsman take a long time to be resolved.

The circular requires all cases, including those involving barangay (village) officials, to be forwarded to the Ombudsman’s head office in Manila, causing delays in the disposition of cases, said Assistant Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Virginia Palanca-Santiago.

Santiago said the circular was implemented by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez shortly upon her assumption to office in 2005.

The circular mandates that all cases filed with the regional offices be submitted to the head office before the legal process for these cases can continue.

Cebu City Councilor Edgardo Labella said this centralized decision-making “takes away the authority of the regional Ombudsman.”

“This would only result in delays in the judgment of cases,” said Labella, a former Ombudsman Visayas director.

He said the Ombudsman’s circular gives Gutierrez the last say in all cases, “even the small ones.”

This, he said, may be the reason behind the slow disposition of cases involving violations by public officials and employees.

Labella said there was even another circular that mandated all cases filed against public school teachers to be filed with the Office of the Ombudsman for Military Affairs and Other Law Enforcement Services, which is based in Manila.

The councilor said this circular made filing cases expensive, contributing to jeopardizing the speedy disposition of cases.

Santiago said that despite the effects of these circulars, the regional offices could not do anything about them because the Ombudsman is authorized to implement these under Republic Act 6770, defines the powers of the Office of the Ombudsman.