Acop vs. Office of the Ombudsman.

The Office of the OMBUDSMAN FOR THE

MILITARY has jurisdiction on the PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION of cases
even if it concerns NON-MILITARY PERSONNEL (police for example), even
though Preliminary Investigation was first deduced that it was solely under
the jurisdiction of the Tanodbayan.
In this case, government agencies, NCR Command, Traffic Management
Command (TMC), Presidential Anti-Crime Commission (PACC), Presidential Central
Police District Command (CPDC) and Criminal Investigation Command (CIC) were
accused of summary killing 11 members of the Kuratong Baleleng gang by S/PO de
los Reyes of Central Intelligence Commission. He stated that there was no shootout
but a summary killing instead.
The complaint went up to the Office of the Ombudsman of the Military. The
Ombudsman addressed the PNP concerned to submit an After Operations Report to
the Panel of Investigators, also created by the Ombudsman. The panel recommended
for a preliminary investigation on a list of officers presented by the PNP. In effect, the
Ombudsman ordered the officers listed to submit their counter affidavit. Petitioners
however, questioned the conduct, stating that the Ombudsman has no jurisdiction to
take preliminary investigation but the Tanodbayan has and that they preempted the
Court on ruling on the issue whether the Ombudsman has jurisdiction over the case
in the first place. HELD: 1. the Ombudsman has jurisdiction as stated in Sec. 31 of RA
6770 (it states that the word cases includes non-military cases), and 2. The
Ombudsman has jurisdiction on Preliminary Investigation as stated in A.O. no. 7 Sec.
2. thus, there is no abuse of discretion on the part of the Ombudsman.