The Office of the Special Prosecutor currently holds office at the 5th flr. of the Sandiganbayan building The Office of the Ombudsman was conducting a customer satisfaction survey to determine the effectiveness and impact of two institutional capacity building programs conducted by the Philippines-Australia Human Resource Development Facility (PAHRDF) for the Human Resource Management and Development (HRMD) staff in 2007.
Randomly, 75% of the OMB’s officials and employees are to be targeted as the survey’s respondents. I was among those tasked to run the said survey particularly at the Office of the Special Prosecutor (OSP).
I scheduled and carried out the data collection last July 8 and 9, thus my two day stint at the OSP.
The OSP holds office at the 5th floor of the Sandiganbayan’s Centennial building along Commonwealth Avenue in Quezon City, home to the country’s special anti-graft court.
The Sandiganbayan was created under Presidential Decree 1606 equivalent in rank to the Court of Appeals. Amendments to P.D. 1606 like Republic Act Nos. 7975 and 8249 have limited the jurisdiction of the Sandiganbayan to cases involving public officials occupying positions classified as salary grade 27 and higher. The Court presently consists of 1 Presiding Justice and 14 Associate Justices who sit in 5 divisions of 3 Justices each in the trial and adjudication of graft and corruption cases.
On the other hand, the OSP under the 1987 Philippine Constitution was made an adjunct office of the Office of the Ombudsman. This was further stipulated in the provisions of Republic Act No. 6770, stating that the OSP shall be an organic component of the OMB and shall be under the supervision and control of the Ombudsman.
The start of my first day of field work at the OSP was rather ominous. As I was to board the elevator from the ground floor, the door opened with a woman going out coughing loudly. The H1N1 ‘epidemic’ had already made a lot of people paranoid due to its rapid spread in many countries including the Philippines.
It’s a good thing that I knew the OSP’s Officer-in-Charge, Deputy Special Prosecutor Wendell Barreras-Sulit. She was a hard-nosed but thoughtful lady prosecutor whom I had the chance to work with in previous endeavors. The assistance I got from her staff was quite invaluable and made my survey work less difficult.
With the lovely and hardworking ladies of the OSP
OIC Sulit’s office became my base of operations where I always came back to after doing my rounds distributing the survey forms.
DSP Sulit and her staff like were hearty eaters like me. During their merienda time, I enjoyed munching on the langka (jackfruit) that DSP brought from her yard, and the pansit bihon and turon (I didn’t get from the rice and choco porridge) that they shared with me. I think they usually bought food from the Sandiganbayan’s cafeteria.
Dropping by the office of my 'virtual' boss with the Center for Asian Integrity (CAI) – Officer - in - Charge – Pros. Nida Gruta
Special Prosecutor (SP) Villa-Ignacio who I understand had become quite sickly, apparently reported for work but I didn’t get to talk to him about the survey as he left early.
After the two day data collection, there was a frustratingly low turn-out rate of returned and answered survey forms. As of July 9, we only had answered forms from 51 respondents. Four of the OSP personnel were at the Central office, 12 were on leave, one form returned without answers and 6 from the HR staff were ‘exempted’ from the survey.
I’m confident the number of answered forms will go a little higher as I could still administer the survey forms to a number of OSP officials and prosecutors at the Central office.
It was around quarter to six that early Thursday evening when I met the Ilustre couple on my way out of the Sandiganbayan building. Ate Mimi was a RSSB officemate while her husband Biboy, was an OSP prosecutor. We exchanged only quick pleasantries as I was running late for a Bible study session at the Good Shepherd Parish in Fairview.
Overall, my two day stay at the OSP became a welcomed working respite from the usual grind at the RSSB.
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