Ombudsman Jesus Crispin Remulla on Friday urged young lawyers to work for the investigative body as corruption cases pile up.
Remulla made the call as his office conducted an investigation on more personalities linked to the flood control scandal.
‘We’re encouraging young lawyers to apply with us, those who have the energy to do all of this,’ Remulla said on the sidelines of the Pilipinas Conference forum of think tank Stratbase Institute.
‘The pay is good. When you work for the government before, it was usually a sacrifice, now I think it is at par with big law offices,’ he added.
The Office of the Ombudsman needs more hands on deck as it started to file cases related to the flood control corruption scandal to antigraft court Sandiganbayan, but Remulla said this is just the start.
Additional divisions may be needed
‘More cases are coming. And we are working with the court for continuous trials-no delays, no unnecessary resets,’ he noted.
Remulla even noted that, with the influx of cases, there might be a need to further increase the seven divisions currently existing in Sandiganbayan.
‘If you do the math with all of these cases right now, we may run out of Sandiganbayan divisions by the time all of this is over, we may legislate new divisions,’ Remulla said.
‘But the problem is, most of the accused are legislators. Would they want to make more divisions to make the result faster?’ he continued.
The Ombudsman on Tuesday has filed the first batch of cases against former Ako Bicol party-list Rep. Elizaldy ‘Zaldy’ Co and several former officials of the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH).
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. on Friday announced that arrest warrants against Co and 17 others, including DPWH officials, are now out.
More personalities under probe
Remulla also confirmed that more personalities tagged on alleged anomalies are also under investigation.
This includes Construction Workers Solidarity partylist Rep. Edwin Gardiola, as well as former cabinet officials Executive Secretary Lucas Bersamin and Department of Budget and Management Amenah Pangandaman.
Gardiola was accused by Batangas Rep. Leandro Legarda Leviste of being ‘biggest’ proponent of (DPWH) projects while noting that the agency’s 2025 budget contains numerous project insertions allegedly linked to the party-list representative.
Last September, former DPWH undersecretary Roberto Bernardo, during a Senate Blue Ribbon Committee hearing on alleged anomalies in flood control projects, claimed he met with Education Undersecretary Trygve Olaivar in 2024 to discuss unprogrammed appropriations supposedly intended for the Office of the Executive Secretary.
Bernardo claimed that Olaivar requested a 15-percent cut from the P2.85-billion infrastructure projects for Bersamin’s office, which he vehemently denied.
Co, in his video statement, said Pangandaman had asked him to confirm the president’s order regarding the alleged insertions with the Presidential Legislative Liaison Office Undersecretary Adrian Bersamin. Pangandaman denied Co’s accusations.