Ombudsman defies House panel in final hearing on impeach raps

Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez remained defiant of the House justice committee that is set to vote on the impeachment complaints against her on Tuesday. Gutierrez did not attend the final clarificatory hearing at the lower chamber on Tuesday morning, where she was supposed to answer all the two impeachment complaints filed against her. The lawyers of the Ombudsman, who attended the first clarificatory hearings last week, likewise did not show up for the proceedings on Tuesday. The Ombudsman also refused to provide the House panel with documents the committee compelled her to produce last week, citing "confidentiality of records." "The Ombudsman said in her reply that she cannot be compelled to divulge the pending cases before the Office of the Ombudsman. For what reason, I don’t know," justice committee head Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr. said at the start of the proceedings.

Even without Gutierrez, the House justice committee will determine on Tuesday if there is probable cause to remove the Ombudsman from her post. “Today, we will determine probable cause, and this is the last stage of the hearing in the committee level... We are here to determine if there are sufficient grounds to support the well-founded belief that the respondent committed an impeachable offense," he said. If majority of the committee members finds probable cause to impeach Gutierrez, the impeachment cases, which Tupas said will be consolidated to a single complaint, will be transmitted to the plenary for another round of voting. 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—in this case, 94 affirmative votes— before it can be transmitted to the Senate for trial. – VVP, GMA News