MANILA – The Supreme Court (SC) on Wednesday assured that it will act promptly on cases that may arise from the ongoing investigation into alleged anomalous infrastructure projects.

Senior Associate Justice Marvic Leonen made the statement during an interview at the anniversary celebration of the SC’s Strategic Plan for Judicial Innovations held at the Manila Hotel.

“If you are asking for what support we can give to the Ombudsman, you see the Judiciary has to remain impartial,” Leonen said. “At the end of the day, we will have to receive the evidence, and we are hoping that the cases are built up properly—meaning to say that they can discover the evidence, they can effectively maintain the evidence, preserve and present it at the proper way and at the proper time.”

Leonen noted that both the Sandiganbayan and regional trial courts would have jurisdiction once the cases are filed, ensuring that the judiciary fulfills its mandate of upholding due process.

“When cases are finally filed, not only with the Sandiganbayan, our regional trial courts will also have jurisdiction over this. So, this is the support that we can give,” he added.

The senior magistrate also revealed that the high court is conducting a review of some Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) projects for the judiciary, including those built by contractors identified in the ongoing investigation.

“We are also surveying because there were projects that were included in the budget for some of our halls of justice, which were outside the judiciary’s budget,” Leonen said. “And therefore, for some of them, these were built by the DPWH. As of yesterday, the justice in charge, Justice Samuel Gaerlan, reported briefly to the Chief Justice that he is looking at several projects that were done by some contractors that were listed.”

Leonen clarified, however, that most of these projects have already been completed.

“Fortunately, most of the projects right now have been built. But in order to make sure that we were not shortchanged, we are doing our own due diligence,” he said. (PNA)