Sandiganbayan starts 2020 with number of cases down 24%

MANILA, Philippines – The Sandiganbayan began 2020 with 3,981 pending cases, down 24% from the year before.

According to the year-end report released by the anti-graft court’s Records Office, these 3,981 cases are pending before the 7 divisions of the Sandiganbayan.

At the beginning of 2019, there had been 5,327 pending cases.

For the entire 2019, the Sandiganbayan was able to dispose of 1,114 cases.

This means that an average of 93 cases were resolved each month in 2019, a marked improvement from the 1995 to 2015 average of only 53 cases per month.

This is not the first time that the Sandiganbayan hit the 1,000 case disposal mark. A total of 1,075 cases were disposed of in 2018 and 1,264 in 2017.

The Sandiganbayan’s speed is not the only factor in the increase of resolved cases. The Office of the Ombudsman only filed 198 cases in 2019, a 73% decline from the 739 cases filed in 2018.

Aside from the Sandiganbayan, the Office of the Ombudsman also filed cases against low-ranking public officials before lower courts. – Rappler.com