Ombudsman: House panel's move to set a bad precedent

After the House justice panel ruled there are sufficient grounds to remove her from office, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez issued a strongly-worded statement decrying the House panel's move as detrimental to the country's justice system and as a form of harassment against her. "This is a bad precedent in our justice system because the House justice committee only showed how the constitutional rights of an individual could be trampled upon in the name of politics," Gutierrez said. "I was hoping that majority of members of the House Justice Committee would rise above partisan politics but I guess I was wrong. I could not expect any fair treatment from the Justice Committee at this point," she added. She reiterated her position that because the Supreme Court's decision legitimizing the House panel's impeachment moves is yet to attain finality, the House committee cannot yet proceed with hearing the two impeachment complaints against her.

Gutierrez maintained that the filing of the two complaints — the first by the group led by former Akbayan Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, the second by militant group Bagong Alyansang Makabayan (BAYAN) — violates the constitutional ban on the filing of more than one impeachment complaint within one year. Gutierrez said that Section 3(5), Article XI of the 1987 Consitution provides that Congress can only entertain one impeachment proceeding in one year. In her interpretation of the Charter, Gutierrz insisted that the filing of the complaint already sets in motion one impeachment proceeding. But last Feb. 15, the Supreme Court dismissed her petition and brushed aside her arguments. The SC said that the simultaneous referral of the two complaints to the House justice committee — not the filing of a singular complaint — initiates the impeachment proceedings. Harassment On Tuesay, majority of the House committee's members voted that the two complaints against her have sufficient grounds. The House panel will begin the clarificatory hearings on the complaints on Wednesday. In her statement, Gutierrez said that what the House panel did was against the law. "The same case is still pending before the Supreme Court. This grave injustice is evident and therefore illegal," she said. She once again labelled as harassment the allegations against her. "I maintain that the impeachment complaints filed against me were made with false and baseless accusations and were resurrected to unjustly vilify me and the office I am representing. This is not my fight alone but also for the Office of the Ombudsman as institution that has been unduly undermined in the selfish quest to unfairly remove me from office," Gutierrez said. — RSJ, GMA News