Impeachment charges vs Ombud ‘sufficient in substance’

MANILA -- A House of Representatives panel on Tuesday found two impeachment complaints against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez “sufficient in substance”.

Declared sufficient in substance were the complaints lodged by former Akbayan paty-list Representative Risa Hontiveros and by progressive groups led by Bayan against the Ombudsman.

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This was the first time that the House justice committee allowed an impeachment complaint to be fully deliberated, Bayan Muna party-list Representative Teodoro Casiño and Akbayan party-list Representative Arlene Bag-ao said.

In September 2009, the first impeachment complaint filed by former Senator Jovito Salonga against Gutierrez was junked by the House panel.

Deputy Speaker Lorenzo Tanada III said the previous impeachment complaint against the Ombudsman failed the "due process" proceedings because allies of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo immediately "killed" it.

Iloilo Representative Niel Tupas Jr., House justice committee chairman, said the committee has yet to decide when to consolidate the two complaints.

Ombudsman Gutierrez will be given a copy of the complaints and has 10 days to respond, he added.

Hontiveros, one of the principal complainants in the first impeachment case, said their complaint was satisfactory as “it clearly establishes that Gutierrez violated the Constitution and betrayed public trust.”

She added the determination of sufficiency in substance “is merely an assessment of whether the allegations in the complaints establish the existence of one or more of the constitutionally-prescribed grounds for impeachment.”

Hontiveros, meanwhile, appealed to Tupas not to give-in to the dilatory tactics of certain congressmen who are allies of Gutierrez.

"We respectfully advise the good committee chair not to yield in to Gutierrez's 'legal bodyguards' in Congress. Based on our experience, they used the determination of sufficiency in substance to derail the process," she said.

Should the complaint be dismisses based on the reply of Gutierrez, the House justice committee will defer it to the plenary to either affirm or overturn the decision.

Complaints

The complaints filed against Gutierrez cited the dismal conviction rate of the Office of the Ombudsman from 2008 to the present, "which indicates a criminal level of incompetence amounting to grave dereliction of duty."

It also brought up Gutierrez's delay in conducting and concluding her investigation on the wrongful death of ensign Philip Andrew Pestaño aboard a Navy vessel 15 years ago. Prior to his death, Pestaño was said to have documented proof of the corruption in the Armed Forces of the Philippines.

Other issues raised against Gutierrez are:
* the decision of the Ombudsman upholding the legality and arrest and involuntary detention of Hontiveros in a rally in 2006;
* the failure to investigate the possible wrongdoing and impropriety of a P1-million dinner for the presidential party at the Le Cirque restaurant in New York;
* the repeated failure to take prompt action on a wide variety of cases involving official abuse and corruption; and
* the refusal to grant ready access to public records such as the Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth of public officials. (Kathrina Alvarez/PNA/Sunnex)