Local officials, PNP top cases in ombudsman

EDITORIAL

Local government officials and the Philippine National Police have the most number of cases filed against them before the Office of the Ombudsman.

Data of the ombudsman’s finance and management information office showed in 2016, a total of 2,799 cases were filed against officials of different local government units.

These include 1,700 cases filed against city or municipal executives, 892 against barangay leaders and 204 involving provincial officials.

The cases were administrative and criminal in nature.

The report said the PNP ranked second with 1,022 cases filed against its officers in the same period.

The Department of Education ranked third with 222, followed by the Armed Forces of the Philippines with 201.

In fifth place is the Department of Environment and Natural Resources with 120 cases, followed by state college and university officials with 109.

The report also said that there were 104 cases filed against the officers of the Bureau of Customs while the Department of Justice had 88, occupying seventh and eight spots, respectively.

The Department of Agriculture ranked ninth on the ombudsman’s list with 85 cases, followed by the House of Representatives with 84 cases. 

This, as the government is upping efforts to collect more taxes from the people to fund projects such as those on infrastructure and pay salaries of government workers including officials who corrupt the money.

If people don’t want to pay taxes, or grudgingly pay, it is because they think part of the money is being pocketed by corrupt officials. The war against corruption has to be upped and this includes measures to prevent corruption like severe penalties against corrupt officials.