Where did Pelaez’s 16 cases go?

Lapu-Lapu city businessman Efrain Pelaez Jr. filed a total of 16 cases with the Visayas Ombudsman’s office since 2007, excluding the new plunder case he filed against the Radazas yesterday.

The data was based on a status report released by Deputy Ombudsman Pelagio Apostol to show that action was being taken.

The target of most of the cases was Arturo Radaza when he was still Lapu-Lapu city mayor and then his wife Paz, who took over as mayor in 2010.

Two of ten cases against Arturo Radaza were dismissed. At least two cases had the approval of Ombudsman Conchita Morales to file charges against Radaza with the Sandiganbayan.

Other cases were sent to Manila and are still pending preliminary investigation.

Apostol was not yet assigned in Cebu when Pelaez’s complaint about ghost employees was filed in 2007. Pelaez was then president of the Mactan Island Chamber of Commerce and Industry.

The “tip of the iceberg” was exposed on July 30, 2008, when Assistant Ombudsman-Visayas Virginia Palanca Santiago approved the filing of graft charges against then Lapu-Lapu City Mayor Arturo Radaza and 13 government officials for giving a monthly salary to a dead woman.

The Visayas office confirmed Pelaez’s report that P1,500 a month was being released to Eutiquia Ompad as a street cleaner in the Clean and Green Project of the city from April to December 2005 even though Ompad, 58, died in April 23 that year.

The Visayas office recommended criminal charges for malversation of public funds through falsification of public document, and an administrative case for dishonesty be filed against Lapu-Lapu officials. The case was upgraded into a formal investigation and sent to Manila, where it remains. It’s up to Ombudsman Morales whether charges should be filed against parties.

The record showed the Final Evaluation Report of Visayas staff was “upgraded” on July 23, 2008.

But Pelaez said he was never given an update about the complaints he filed.

Among the cases filed by Pelaez against the Radazas were the “purchase of cumputer units at almost triple its price, ghost payrolls, and the worsening condition of its waste disposal.”

Pelaez lamented that years have passed without action on the cases by the Ombudsman Visayas – or at least he was never told the progress.

He said he visited Apostol’s office several times over the last seven years but there were no results.

He wrote several letters asking for updates but didn’t get a reply.

“Apostol sat on these important cases. The Supreme Court categorizes the failure to dispose of pending matters before the office as gross inefficiency or gross neglect of duty,” he said.

“We cannot continue to be demoralized. These inept and inefficient ways cannot be further tolerated,” he added.

“I’m upset with the Deputy Ombudsman. They should have conducted the investigation. But what happened? We were the ones who looked for evidence. I got fed up already. I didn’t even get a reply from the office. I have not seen anything,” Pelaez said.

He said he’s willing to face any complaint Apostol files against him.

Pelaez recently filed a complaint against Apostol before the Office of the President, saying he should be held liable for “gross inefficiency and gross neglect of duty.”

“I pay taxes to the government but my taxes are just being stolen. I don’t get anything from the Lapu-Lapu City government except harassment,” Pelaez said.