Apostol vows to finish investigation in 60 days

CEBU, Philippines - The Office of the Ombudsman-Visayas has assured to finish within 60 days its investigation into the reported pilferage of close to 300 bags of smuggled rice at the Cebu International Port.

The assurance was made yesterday by Deputy Ombudsman for the Visayas Pelagio Apostol, who said that they have already started gathering evidence. Apostol said the anti-graft office will be tapping other agencies to help them.

  Apostol said his office would want a report from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), Cebu Ports Authority, Commission on Audit (COA) and most specially the Bureau of Customs. These agencies are also conducting their own investigation into the case.

According to Apostol, the Office of the Ombudsman has the mandate under the law to request a copy of the investigation report from these agencies.

 â€œLahat-lahat ng mga efforts nila ay pag-iipunin natin at ito ang basehan ng ikakaso. Hindi puwedeng wala kaming personal information sa nangyari (All their efforts will be consolidated and this will be the basis for the case to be filed),” Apostol said.

Apostol said he has assigned two lawyers to evaluate the reports from other government agencies. The lawyers will make the necessary recommendation whether or not deeper investigation is necessary.

He warned that the culprits will be charged with qualified theft if there was robbery involved; malversation, if the property was misappropriated and mismanaged; and violation of the Republic Act 3019 or the Anti-Graft and Corrupt Practices Act if there was gross negligence of the supervising official in the concerned agency.

The Bureau of Customs inventory team reported that a total of 272 bags of smuggled rice held at the CIP have been stolen. The pilfered shipment was part of the 500,000 bags of smuggled rice seized from Vietnam.

Meanwhile, Apostol is pushing for a zero backlog by the end of October. The deputy ombudsman said that all his investigators have committed to resolve pending cases from 2011 to 2012 by the end of October.

 â€œWe are aiming for zero backlog of the case. Nag-commit naman lahat ng mga imbestigador at mga abogado,” Apostol said. (FREEMAN)