Prosecutor lack hounds Ormoc City

TACLOBAN CITY—One prosecutor. At least 1,700 pending cases. Ten new cases daily.

These are the numbers that paint a vivid picture of how undermanned the prosecutor’s office of Ormoc City, Leyte, is.

The region’s state prosecutor assigned two prosecutors from Tacloban City—Erwin James Fabriga and Melissa Macapugas—to ease the load of Ormoc City Prosecutor Marcelo Oñate.

But Fabriga and Macapugas are still in Tacloban.

Oñate was left alone following the promotion of Gorgonia Encina and Jun Romero, former Ormoc prosecutors, as judges of the municipal trial court. That was in 2012, more than three years ago.

Oñate has since requested Malacañang for replacements but “until now, the request has not been acted upon,” said Thelma Aparis, assistant administrative officer of the city prosecutor’s office, in a phone interview.

Aparis admitted the obvious—the lack of prosecutors in Ormoc is delaying action on hundreds of cases.

More than 1,200 cases are pending in Ormoc’s two regional trial courts and another 500 are in lower courts.