Impeachment complainant: Merci betrayed Filipinos' trust

(Updated 3:13 p.m.) The former lawmaker who filed an impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez told a House panel on Wednesday that the Ombudsman's failure to act on high-profile cases is a betrayal of Filipinos' trust. Former Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel, who filed the first impeachment complaint against Gutierrez in July last year, said "pinagtaksilan niya [Gutierrez] ang tiwala ng mamamayan." In a message addressed to Gutierrez during the first day of the clarificatory hearings on Wednesday, Baraquel said, “Hindi ka namin pinepersonal. Hindi personal na interes mo ang dapat manaig kundi ang interes ng taumbayan." The House justice committee is holding clarificatory hearings on impeachment complaints filed against Gutierrez at the lower chamber to determine if there is probable cause to remove the official from her post. During her testimony, Baraquel said Gutierrez should be impeached for allegedly “protecting the previous administration." Gutierrez is an appointee and known family friend of former President and incumbent Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. “Simula na ng paniningil. Naniniwala kami na dapat ma-impeach si Merceditas Gutierrez dahil ginagamit niya upang protektahan ang nakaraang administrasyon," she said. Protector of corrupt officials? BAYAN Secretary General Renato Reyes meanwhile accused the Ombudsman of being the “protector of corrupt officials" during her almost six years in office. “Taliwas sa sinumpaang tungkulin na maging taga-usig, tanging pagtatanggol sa mga tiwali ang nakita natin," he said. As of posting time, former Solicitor General Francisco Chavez is presenting evidence on the Ombudsman’s failure to prosecute agriculture officials involved in the P728-million fertilizer fund scam in 2004. “The Ombudsman has become a failed institution," he said. Another complainant, former Scout Ranger chief Brig. Gen. Danny Lim, said Gutierrez deserves "no mercy" from the impeachment process. “Merci the merciless should receive no mercy from the impeachment process. Her continued hardline and arrogant stance not to subject herself to a valid, legal, and institutional process of exacting accountability — despite the spaces and forums already provided for her to seek redress — must be met with no less than the steely implementation of the law to dispense justice to a nation greatly deprived of it," he said. Lim said Gutierrez's continued stay as Ombudsman “is a mockery of justice, more so, it insults the institution and the rest of the sincere public servants who are getting a bad image because of her." Impeachment complaints Baraquel's impeachment complaint listed the following alleged wrongdoings of the Ombudsman:

Alleged failure to act promptly on cases filed against the Arroyo couple and other public officials involved in the overpriced $329-million national broadband network deal, which Mrs. Arroyo suspended in September 2007;

Incurring inexcusable delay in the investigation on the death of Ensign Philip Pestaño, with the United Nations even calling the Ombudsman to task for failure to probe the case;

Issuing a decision to uphold the legality of the arrest and involuntary detention of Hontiveros by the Philippine National Police in 2005;

Failure to investigate the P1-million dinner for Mrs. Arroyo's presidential party at the Le Cirque restaurant in New York;

Repeated failure to take prompt action on various cases involving Mrs. Arroyo such as the Mega-Pacific scam, among others;

Refusal to grant ready access to public records such as the Statement of Assets, Liabilities and Net Worth (SALN) of former Pampanga Rep. and incumbent Ang Galing Pinoy party-list Rep. Juan Miguel Arroyo. Meanwhile, Reyes' complaint identified the supposed inaction on several cases including:

the alleged P728-million fertilizer fund scam;

the Euro generals scandal involving more than P6 million;

the Mega Pacific scam. Railroading the proceedings? Meanwhile in an interview on GMA-7 "24 Oras" newscast on Tuesday, Gutierrez said, “It is clear that they are railroading the impeachment process." She also criticized the lawmakers who declared on Tuesday 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)," Gutierrez said during the "24 Oras" interview. – VVP/KBK, GMA News