Ombudsman: 35 flood control cases filed in courts

MANILA, Philippines – Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla said 35 cases related to anomalous flood control projects have already been filed in court.

“There are now 35 cases before the courts…31 of them in the Sandiganbayan and four in the RTCs (regional trial courts). We are now conducting 166 cases for preliminary investigation, which of course will lead to filing. Most of [these cases] will be filed in the courts,” Remulla said during the Senate finance committee hearing on the proposed 2026 budget of the Office of the Ombudsman on Thursday.

The proposed 2027 budget for Office of the Ombudsman is P7.23 billion.

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READ: Palace says Ombudsman probe into flood mess should not be rushed

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Remulla said the agency is also conducting lifestyle checks on 107 government officials.

“But we are still refining our method in the lifestyle checks. I think that we can do a great deal here because when we are more effective in conducting the lifestyle checks, we can go for more forfeiture cases,” he said.

“That I think, is the most important, because once people get used to the fact that the government can forfeit properties that have been unlawfully acquired, it will resonate within the community that information should be given to the Ombudsman, because it will do its work,” added Remulla.

Given the magnitude of the alleged anomalies involving flood control projects, the Ombudsman was asked if it currently has sufficient investigators, forensic accountants, engineers, and other technical personnel to investigate the complex infrastructure procurement cases.

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Remulla said that hiring more people is most important for the agency.

“We have to be able to devise our system to make it faster in accepting more people into the Ombudsman’s office. I think this is so critical,” he said, adding that old way of hiring process was really much slower.

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“We just have to streamline everything so that we can have more investigators who will file more cases,” he said.

To date, the agency has already hired 60 new lawyers. But Remulla said they are in the now in the process of interviewing at least 40 more lawyers by November.

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“Hopefully, this will help us speed up the process of investigation and resolution of cases, and of course the prosecution of cases,” added Remulla. /jpv