Merci to pro-impeachment solons: 'Look who's talking'

The Ombudsman on Tuesday took potshots at members of the House of the Representatives who, on the same day, declared as “sufficient in grounds" the impeachment complaints filed against her. “Ewan ko sa kanila, kung sila ay mga malilinis (I don’t know with them, if they’re clean)," Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez said in an interview aired on GMA-7’s “24 Oras" newscast. Taking a swipe at the legislators’ lifestyles, Gutierrez said, “Sana naman, eh, kung ang nag-aakusa sa akin, eh, mga malilinis, eh, okay lang, ‘no (It would have been okay if those accusing me are clean, ‘no)." The House Committee on Justice voted 41-12 to push through with the impeachment proceedings against Gutierrez. In a statement, Gutierrez decried the decision to push through with the voting “despite a pending case on the same issue with the Supreme Court."
For the latest Philippine news stories and videos, visit GMANews.TV “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," the Ombudsman in the statement. “It is clear that they are railroading the impeachment process," Gutierrez added in the “24 Oras" interview. Highest conviction rate Gutierrez also trumpeted data from the Office of the Special Prosecutor, Ombudsman that showed her as the Ombudsman with the highest percentage of convictions during her term at 53.75 percent. The data compared Gutierrez with former ombudsmen Simeon Marcelo with a 25.26-percent conviction rate and Aniano Desierto with 26.49 percent. “Gutierrez’s number is an illusory picture of good results, however," according to a report by the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism (PCIJ). “A closer review of the 223 cases she steered to conviction shows that almost all — 221 cases to be exact — were filed against just one official, the mayor of Nakar, Quezon province. The two other cases involved a municipal mayor of Iloilo, and a city mayor of Nueva Ecija," the PCIJ reported. “This is where her score turns most sour: by number of actual persons convicted of corruption, the Sandiganbayan database shows that Gutierrez, in four years, has managed to secure the conviction of less than one senior official per year," the PCIJ report added. — VS, GMA News