The feisty lady lawmaker is right yet again.

After correctly observing that congressional investigations  supposedly “in aid of legislation” are going nowhere and calling for limits to such inquiries, Sen. Miriam Defensor Santiago is going a step farther -- and in the right direction.

Santiago is now proposing that congressional recommendations arising out of committee hearings be given primary consideration by the Office of the Ombudsman, deemed as the more appropriate body to investigate official wrongdoing.  

She announced she would file a bill directing the Ombudsman to waive or at least to give priority to preliminary investigations of criminal cases recommended for filing by the Senate or the House of Representatives.

We think this is a logical “follow-through” to her and colleague Sen. Joker Arroyo’s observations that such congressional exercise is “value-less”. 

The senator explained that after lengthy probes in the Senate, the Ombudsman in the past failed to act promptly on the Senate recommendations.

Santiago said last year she already filed a resolution “expressing the sense of the Senate that the Ombudsman should strictly comply with the periods provided under the Rules of Court in the investigation of cases referred to it by Congress”.

The lady solon’s resolution is apparently pending in the Senate justice committee.

In the same resolution, she also asked for an amendment of the Ombudsman Act to set a time limit for preliminary investigations conducted by the Ombudsman.

At present, the Ombudsman Rules of Procedure provides that preliminary investigation should be conducted according to the Rules of Court.

“Under the Rules of Court, once the complaint is filed with the fiscal, the accused is given 10 days to submit counter-affidavits, and the hearing is held within five days. The investigating officer is given 10 days after the investigation to file a resolution either dismissing the complaint or filing it in court,” the former judge said in a statement.

“Under the Rules, the Ombudsman has about 25 days to finish a preliminary investigation.  But in many criminal cases that the Senate recommended for filing in court, the Ombudsman did not act at all or the Ombudsman let the cases languish pending preliminary investigation,” she pointed out.

In her resolution, Santiago enumerated the cases of delay in the preliminary investigation by the Ombudsman, including: the 2006 fertilizer fund scam; the 2008 case of the euro generals; and the 2009 road-board scam, as well as the NBN-ZTE scandal.

“Despite the recommendations made by the Senate, the Office of the Ombudsman failed to resolve these cases promptly,” she stressed.

Santiago said the sense of the Senate should be conveyed that the Ombudsman should “strictly comply with the periods provided under the Rules of Court in the investigation of cases referred to it by Congress”.

She added: “The proper amendment to the Ombudsman Act should be passed by Congress, in order to reflect the periods provided in the Rules of Court.  This shall serve as a clear guide in the disposition of cases before the Office of the Ombudsman.”