BAGUIO CITY – the Office of the City Prosecutor this week cited its accomplishment for this year during Mondays Flag Raising ceremony here.
Prosecutor Rolando Vergara said,” the office has received a total of 2,337 new complaints under normal preliminary investigation or summary procedure from January to September this year.
Vergara said, “out of the total cases, 1,729 informations were filed in court, 499 were dismissed by the office and 68 were referred to other agencies.”
“The number of pending cases still to be resolved as of September is 50 and our disposition rate is 97.82 percent” he said.
For cases inquest proceedings, the office received 509 new complaints, filed 470 informations in court and dismissed 33 cases while 5 cases were referred to other agencies.
Vergara said,” the office disposition rate is a modest 99.80 percent or outstanding.’
This is despite the lack of manpower and office equipment the office is experiencing as per appeal from City Prosecutor Elmer Sagsago.
Sagsago said, “ideally, there would be 2 prosecutors assigned per court, however there are only 15 prosecutors in his office.’
Sagsago added,”the office is also in dire need of additional staff to complement the prosecutors as those who have retired were never changed.”
Meantime, Assistant City Prosecutor Ruth Bernabe of the same office have been designated Head of the newly formed CAR Anti-Trafficking Task Force (CATTF) as per Department of Justice order 809 established by the Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking (IACAT).
The members are Abra prosecutor Ferdinand Palma, Benguet Prosecutor Jurgenson Lagdao, Mountain Province Prosecutor Golda Bagawi, Ifugao Prosecutor Marvin Ngayawan, Kalinga Prosecutor Bartolome Gamonnac, Apayao Prosecutor Jhon Aguda, Tabuk Prosecutor Rito Bungaoen and Baguio Prosecutors Maria Nenita Opinana and Ma. Lourdes Esperanza Soriano.
The CATTF is designated to investigate and prosecute all trafficking in persons cases in the Cordilleras./Paul Rillorta
