Three government agencies have signed an agreement that would deputize prosecutors and state auditors as resident Ombudsmen particularly in “corruption-prone” agencies.
In a statement issued Thursday, Sept. 9, the Department of Justice (DOJ) said it signed the memorandum of agreement (MOA) together with the Commission on Audit (COA) and the Office of the Ombudsman (OMB).
Under the MOA, deputized resident Ombudsmen will “bring to host government agencies the Ombudsman’s front-line services, by acting on complaints and reports against officials and employees of the said agencies; serve as watchdogs and implementors of corruption prevention programs; and monitor compliance with existing anti-graft laws and regulations.”
The DOJ said the MOA “synergizes the investigatory powers of the OMB, DOJ and COA in the implementation of anti-corruption measures, thus aiding the OMB and the COA in carrying out their respective mandates while also serving as a mechanism for the DOJ to attain the objectives of the Task Force Against Corruption.”
The Task Force Against Corruption (TFAC) was ordered created by President Duterte on Oct. 27, 2020. Justice Secretary Menardo I. Guevarra was directed to form a task force to investigate corruption in government until the end of the President’s term in June 2022.
Also members of the TFAC are the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Office of the Special Assistant to the President (OSAP), the Presidential Anti-Corruption Commission (PACC), the National Prosecution Service (NPS), the DOJ’s Office of Cybercrime (OOC), and the Anti-Money Laundering Council (AMLC).
To implement the MOA on resident Ombudsmen, the “OMB, COA, and DOJ shall jointly enter into agreements with partner agencies regarding the terms of the deployment of the Resident Ombudsmen, which is expected to start rolling this month” (September), the DOJ also said in its statement.
Guevarra had said that “the idea (of fielding deputy Ombudsmen) actually came from Ombudsman Samuel R. Martires himself as he explained that his office did not have enough manpower to revive the resident Ombudsmen of the past.”