Enrile: No need to assure Merci of Senate's impartiality

There is no need to assure Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez that the Senate will be impartial in case she gets impeached by the House of Representatives, Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile said Monday. "I dont have to assure her, that's my oath," Enrile told reporters in an interview. House justice committee chairman Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. earlier said his panel might vote on the probable cause of the impeachment complaints against Gutierrez on Tuesday, especially if she fails to attend the proceedings. According to Section 3, Article XI of the 1987 Constitution, the impeachment complaint against the Ombudsman will have to get a one-third vote of all House members, before it can be transmitted to the Senate for trial. This early, Senator Francis Pangilinan has asked Gutierrez to resign even before the impeachment proceedings reach the Senate because the trial will only bring the legislative process to a "standstill." But Gutierrez found an ally in her friend Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago, who said the House should let the Ombudsman exhaust all her legal remedies before proceeding with the impeachment proceedings. Enrile, for his part, said that they will do their duty as senators to "do justice" to people who will come to them. "I'm not going to be a party to just do harm to somebody if she is innocent (but) if she is guilty so be it. That's my concept of justice," he said. The 1987 Constitution says that the House of Representatives shall have the exclusive power to initiate all cases of impeachment while the Senate shall have the sole power to try and decide all the cases of impeachment. When the President of the Philippines is on trial, the chief justice of the Supreme Court shall preside the impeachment proceedings. In the case of Gutierrez, Enrile will be the one to preside over the trial. — Kimberly Jane Tan/RSJ, GMA News