Sandigan hits 16-year high case disposal rate

MANILA, Philippines — With three months left before the year ends, the Sandiganbayan has already surpassed its highest record of disposed cases for the past 16 years.

Based on the figures from the Sandiganbayan Judicial Records Division, from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30 of 2017, the anti-graft court has already resolved 925 cases, one point higher that its records for three years combined or from 2014 (277 resolved cases), 2015 (276 resolved cases) to 2016 (371 resolved cases).

The court's performance for the past nine months of the year has also broken its records of 767 resolved cases in 2001, the highest for the last 16 years.

The 925 disposed cases for three quarters of 2017 translates to 103 cases resolved by per month.

With three months left in the work calendar, there is also a chance that the Sandiganbayan might break its record of 966 resolved cases in 2000.

If the anti-graft court can sustain its prolific monthly performance, its record for the year might even reach a four-digit mark, a feat last seen during the 90s, when it annual case disposal rate averaged to 1,950 (in 1990), 1,256 (in 1991), 1,461 (in 1993) and 1,931 (in 1994).

In 1995, the Sandiganbayan was able to resolve 2,652 cases, the highest in the court's history since it started its operation in 1979.

Based on the judicial records, the Sandiganbayan opened 2017 with 4, 214 pending cases carried over from the previous years.

The caseload surged to as high as 6,039 cases as the Office of the Ombudsman filed a whopping 1,825 cases from January to September, significantly higher than the last six years since Conchita Carpio-Morales was appointed as ombudsman in 2011.

The court, however, managed to bring down its pending cases to 5,114 by the end of the third quarter of the year.

The marked improvement in the Sandiganbayan's case disposition rate came after two additional court divisions became operational in the middle of 2016.

From its previous five divisions, the Sandiganbayan got a funding from the government for the creation of two more divisions by virtue of Republic Act 10660 approved in 2015.

The passage of the law seeks to decongest the Sandiganbayan docket and aid the court in the immediate resolution of graft and other corruption cases against public officials.

High dismissal rate

But despite the Sandiganbayan's bullish performance, the number its pending cases for this year stands as the highest in the court's history, due to the surge of cases filed by the ombudsman.

The 1,825 cases brought by the anti-graft body before the Sandiganbayan translates to 203 cases filed per month.

Majority of the cases filed involve malversation of public funds and violation of Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act.

The ombudsman's performance, however, was offset by the high number of case dismissals.

The figures show that the ombudsman only managed to achieve 38 percent conviction rate as of the end of the third quarter.

Based on the records, 249 accused were cleared of charges from January to September as their cases were outrightly dismissed by the Sandiganbayan without trial while 99 accused were acquitted after trial.

The ombudsman was able to secure the conviction of only 49 accused. Meanwhile, 12 accused voluntarily pleaded guilty.