ACCOUNTABILITY OF PUBLIC OFFICERS

Acop v. Office of the Ombudsman

248 SCRA 566

FACTS:

In this case, government agencies, NCR Command, Traffic Management Command

(TMC), Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC), Presidential Central Police District
Command (CPDC) and Criminal Investigation Command (CIC) were accused of summary
killing 11 members of the “Kuratong Baleleng” gang by S/PO de los Reyes of Central
Intelligence Commission. He stated that there was no “shootout” but a “summary killing
instead”.
The complaint went up to the Office of the Ombudsman of the Military. The Ombudsman
addressed the PNP concerned to submit an “After Operations Report” to the Panel of
Investigators, also created by the Ombudsman. The panel recommended for a preliminary
investigation on a list of officers presented by the PNP. In effect, the Ombudsman ordered the
officers listed to submit their counter affidavit. Petitioners however, questioned the conduct,
stating that the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to take preliminary investigation but the
Tanodbayan has and that they preempted the Court on ruling on the issue whether the
Ombudsman has jurisdiction over the case in the first place.

ISSUE:

Whether or not Deputy Ombudsman for Military Manuel Casaclang committed grave
abuse of discretion when he set the case for preliminary investigation and required the petitioners
to submit their counter-affidavits before any preliminary evaluation of the complaint

RULING:

Pursuing the present line of reasoning, when one considers that by express mandate of paragraph
8, Section 13, Article XI of the Constitution, the Ombudsman may "exercise such other powers
or perform functions or duties as may be provided by law," it is indubitable then that Congress
has the power to place the Office of the Special Prosecutor under the Office of the Ombudsman.

In the same vein, Congress may remove some of the powers granted to the Tanodbayan by P.D.
No. 1630 and transfer them to the Ombudsman; or grant the Office of the Special Prosecutor
such other powers and functions and duties as Congress may deem fit and wise. This Congress
did through the passage of R.A. No. 6770.
Through the said law, the Office of the Special Prosecutor was made an organic component of
the Office of the Ombudsman, 20 while the Ombudsman was granted the following
powers,21 among others:

(1) Investigate and prosecute on its own or on complaint by any person, any act or
omission of any public officer or employee, office or agency, when such act or
omission appears to be illegal, unjust, improper or inefficient. It has primary
jurisdiction over cases cognizable by the Sandiganbayan and, in the exercise of its
primary jurisdiction, it may take over, at any stage, from any investigatory agency
of Government, the investigation of such cases;