Ombudsman to decide soon on case vs Tinga

The Office of the Ombudsman is expected to decide soon the fate of a graft complaint filed against retired Supreme Court Justice Dante Tinga which rose from a property dispute in Taguig.

Tinga had branded the complaint, filed last year by Jovito Olazo, as a political move to discredit his candidacy for Taguig mayor in the 2010 elections. Tinga had alleged that the family of Senator Alan Peter Cayetano were behind it.

Olazo denied this and said he filed the case without any instigation by the Cayetanos.

The Office of the Ombudsman said the graft case was being reviewed and it would be issuing a statement on the matter “soonest.” The agency made the statement when the Philippine Daily Inquirer asked about the case.

The preliminary investigation of the case began last year, with a November 22 order directing Tinga to submit his counteraffidavit.

Tinga submitted his counteraffidavit contesting the graft case on December 13, and Olazo submitted his reply the same month.

Olazo alleged that Tinga, when he was Taguig’s congressional representative, pressured his father Miguel to sell his Taguig land to his (Tinga’s) nephew. Tinga was also behind moves to defeat his right to his father’s land, Olazo added.

Olazo had applied for a sales application from the Department of Environment and Natural Resources for the parcel of land his family had been tilling as farmers, but his father had sent a letter contesting this and filed his own sales application.

Olazo said his father later disowned the letter and denied opposing his son’s sales application.

Olazo alleged that Tinga subsequently had Miguel execute a sworn statement retracting his previous assertions and once again claiming that he had the right to the parcel of land covered by his son’s sales application. Tinga had signed this latest statement from Miguel as a witness.

In his counteraffidavit, Tinga said that Miguel, his cousin, decided to sell the rights to his property and dispose of it in favor of Jeffrey Rodriguez, a nephew of Tinga’s wife.

According to Tinga, Olazo wanted to claim the lot for himself and thus filed a sales application. Leila B. Salaverria