Ombudsman’s convictions

President Benigno Aquino III’s appointment of Conchita Carpio-Morales as  Ombudsman is a morale-boosting decision that should invigorate the Tanodbayan’s office in bringing  to justice scoundrels in government.

“When the new Ombudsman, former Supreme Court Justice Conchita Carpio-Morales, takes office, we will have an honest-to-goodness anti-corruption office, not one that condones the corruption and abuses in government,” Aquino said in his State of the Nation Address (Sona) last Monday.

“I expect that this year, we will have filed our first major case against the corrupt and their accomplices. And these will be real cases, with strong evidence and clear testimonies, which will lead to the punishment of the guilty.”

Aquino appointed Morales, a retired Supreme Court associate justice reputed for independence, to underscore his seriousness in going after officialdom’s hoodlums.

Yet to prove that her office will effectively afflict the corrupt, Morales needs to swim against history’s tide.

A February report titled “The apocalypse of good governance? 4 Ombudsmen, 4 failed crusades vs corruption” showed how Morales’ forerunners  failed.

The last Tanodbayan, Merceditas Gutierrez, fled office in ignominy. The Lower House impeached her for betraying public trust, for instance by sitting on cases involving former president Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

Gutierrez, in four years, managed to secure the conviction of less than one senior official per year, reported the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ) based on Sandiganbayan data.

Her three predecessors, Simeon Marcelo, Aniano Desierto and Conrado Vasquez, secured convictions  of  16, 36 and 62 officials per year on average, respectively.

At least 16,500 cases have been filed with the anti-graft court since it was born in 1988, PCIJ’s Malou Mangahas and Karol Anne Ilagan wrote.

Aquino made an understatement when he said in his Sona that “the attainment of true justice does not end in the filing of cases, but in the conviction of criminals.”

Do Morales and the President see eye to eye?

Interviewed by the Judicial and Bar Council, Morales impliedly dubbed Acting Tanodbayan Orlando Casimiro’s supposed achievement of  filing of more than 3,000 graft cases after Gutierrez resigned, a product of “magician-genius,” in other words, an illusion.

Morales said she would rather “embark on a reorientation seminar for special prosecutors on… the technique of determining the elements of the crime and of probable cause.”

Just about time.

In retraining  graft busters, Morales must inaugurate an era of unprecedented, high conviction rates.

For years, the Filipino people’s dignity took a beating on the world stage, and  they lost at least 30 percent of their annual budget   due to graft, bribery, embezzlement, backdoor deals, nepotism and  patronage politics  from the barangay up.

The Office of the Ombudsman cannot afford to file more weak cases against the crooks. Such waste of time, money and effort amounts—morally speaking—to participation in plunder.