House bill gives ombudsman wire-tapping powers

MANILA, Philippines - A senior administration lawmaker has sought sweeping and expanded powers for the Office of the Ombudsman, including the authority to conduct wiretapping operations and raids as well as open bank accounts in the course of investigating graft in government.

Pangasinan Rep. Marlyn Primicias Agabas, chairperson of the House committee on revision of laws, filed House Bill 5044 or the proposed “Act Strengthening the Institutional Capacity of the Office of the Ombudsman,” which she said was necessary for the campaign against graft and corruption.

The bill seeks to amend provisions of Republic Act 6770 or the Ombudsman Act of 1989.

She said the continued increase in the number of graft and corruption cases made it “reasonable and necessary to grant said office additional investigative and prosecutorial powers, among others, to effectively implement the country’s graft laws.”

Included in the bill is the proposal to allow the ombudsman to “employ wiretapping as an investigative technique when the circumstances of a case so warrant,” and allowed by the courts.

This means some sections of Republic Act 4200 or the Anti-Wiretapping Law would have to be amended to include cases involving plunder, violations of the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act, forfeiture of ill-gotten wealth, crimes committed by public officers under the Revised Penal Code and other graft and corruption offenses.

The measure also seeks to grant the ombudsman “exercise of exclusive jurisdiction over cases cognizable by the Sandiganbayan and, pursuant to such exclusive jurisdiction, take over, at any stage, from any investigatory agency, if, in its determination, public interest will be served thereby.”

The ombudsman, aside from administering oaths, issuing subpoenas and subpoena duces tecum, should have the power “to compel and secure the compulsory attendance of any witness or the production of evidence wherever the same may be found, and take testimony at any stage of any investigation or inquiry, the bill stated.

The measure also seeks to grant the ombudsman the power to examine and have access to bank and non-bank accounts, records and transactions, such as deposits, trusts, investments, even prior to the filing of a case before a court of competent jurisdiction, notwithstanding the provisions of bank secrecy laws and the Anti-Money Laundering Act.

Agabas also proposed the power to “enter, visit, inspect or, if circumstances require, break into any government office or any public premises structure or establishment, in the lawful course of an ongoing criminal or administrative investigation, and seize any object or article found therein which may be used in the said investigation, or direct any public officer to deliver such object or article, pursuant to such rules and regulations that the ombudsman must promulgate to govern the exercise of the foregoing power.”

Under the bill, the ombudsman may “represent itself, the Republic of the Philippines, or the people of the Philippines in any judicial, administrative, civil or official proceeding involving cases within its jurisdiction before any court, tribunal, agency, or office without need of prior clearance, authority or deputation from any other office or agency, including the Office of the Solicitor General.”

It may also deputize private lawyers to act as investigators or prosecutors to act under the direct control and supervision of the ombudsman in cases being handled by the office, when special and meritorious circumstances so warrant, subject to such rules and regulations, including provisions for reasonable compensation and reimbursement for reasonable expenses, as the ombudsman will promulgate, among others.

The lawmaker also proposed that investigators and prosecutors of the Office of the Ombudsman, including those deputized by the office, shall be immune from criminal, administrative or civil suits arising from their mandate and the regular exercise of their official functions.