PENDING cases at the Sandiganbayan as of Aug. 31, 2024 have been whittled down to 1,327, down 15 percent from 1,561 for the same period a year ago and less than half of 2,781 cases in August 2022.
According to the annual summary of cases filed, disposed, and pending released by the Judicial Records Division, the number of unresolved cases is at a 45-year low.
The lowest number was posted was back 1979 at 543, when the special anti-graft court was as its infancy with only one division composed of three justices.
From a high of 6,771 in 2017, the court’s caseload has been steadily decreasing on an average of 758 cases per year for the last six years.
On the other hand, newly filed cases from the Office of the Ombudsman have trickled in at the rate of only 287 cases per year.
From a caseload of 2,220 at the start of the year, Sandiganbayan had already disposed of 893 cases while only 118 new cases have been filed from January to August. During that same eight-month span, there were five months when cases came in on single digits.
That disparity is largely attributed to the change in the scope of the Sandiganbayan’s jurisdiction over cases involving erring public officials courtesy of Republic Act No. 10660 which was signed into law in 2015.
Intended to address the backlog of cases at the anti-graft court including high profile corruption and ill-gotten wealth cases that have remained unresolved for more than 30 years, Congress expanded the Sandiganbayan from five to seven divisions and removed the requirement for unanimity in resolutions so that cases and pending matters can be decided by a simple majority.
The biggest factor that drained the court docket of cases however was the modification that sent the bulk of so-called minor cases to regional and municipal trial courts.
Among these cases are those that do not involve bribery, does not allege damage to the government or alleges damage to the government or bribery in an amount not exceeding one million pesos.
This meant that majority of the cases being filed by the Ombudsman that would have ended up with the Sandiganbayan before RA 10660 became law, were instead farmed out to local courts.
Ombudsman Samuel Martires said he is now working on a proposed measure to address the sharp drop in cases going to the Sandiganbayan which will be submitted to the House and the Senate within the month.
