Ombudsman loses more anti-graft cases

Read this report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It says that in the mid-year report, the Ombudsman 94 of the 194 person whose cases was resolved were acquitted. The cases filed against 44 respondents were dismissed without going to trial and 13 were dismissed during trial.

The Office of the Ombudsman also withdrew 11 cases this year.

Responding to these reports, the Office of the Ombudsman reported that in 2008 a high of 73 percent conviction rate claiming that 406 resulted in convictions while only 147 resulted in acquittals.

But it turns out, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, that 221 of the 406 convictions in 2008 actually involved just one person, a mayor in Quezon province found guilty of ursurpation of official functions of the DENR for issuing permits to transport forest products.

Not a very effective prosecutors are they? They very good at prosecuting small time cases from far away provinces, but none of the big graft and corruption case are ever successful in Metro Manila. I wonder why?

Maybe they should start hiring smarter lawyers or at least honest ones...I doubt it.