Blue ribbon report vs Merci to cause problems for Senate — Enrile

Senate President Juan Ponce Enrile on Monday said the Senate blue ribbon committee's recommendation to impeach Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez will cause problems for the Senate once the impeachment complaint is elevated to the chamber. "I respect (Senate blue ribbon committee chairman Sen. Teofisto Guingona III's) prerogative as the chair but that's going to be a problem that we will encounter when we have the impeachment case here," Enrile told reporters in an interview. On Thursday, the Senate blue ribbon committee recommended the impeachment of Gutierrez and the dismissal and filing of charges against the state prosecutors who entered into a plea bargaining agreement with former military comptroller Carlos Garcia. Enrile said the senators will in effect be seen as "prejudging" Gutierrez because they will serve as judges once the impeachment trial against her begins. "A recommendation like what the chair of the blue ribbon made would imply he has prejudged the guilt of the person being impeached and he is going to be a judge," he said.

Senator Miriam Defensor-Santiago also said the recommendation will cast doubt on the credibility of the blue ribbon report and the senators who signed it. "For us to be objective and impartial as judges in an impeachment trial, we should make no comment just like any regional trial judge in the country when the case is about to be referred to us," Santiago said in a separate interview. "How can we be the judge if—to follow the analogy—we as judge direct the fiscal to already file the complaint in our court? That would be highly suspicious in a trial court, and also in the same way in the Senate," she added. Inhibition? Given the situation, Enrile said the counsel of Gutierrez will probably ask for these senators' inhibition from the impeachment case. But he said that he will not advise Guingona and the other senators what they should do. "I do not know how (Guingona) is going to explain this position. I will not teach them to remedy their problem," he said. The senators who signed the blue ribbon's recommendation were Francis Escudero, Sergio Osmeña III, Joker Arroyo, Ramon Bong Revilla Jr., Juan Miguel Zubiri, Franklin Drilon, Francis Pangilinan, Pia Cayetano, Ralph Recto, Antonio Trillanes IV, Alan Peter Cayetano, Loren Legarda, and Manny Villar. However, Drilon, Escudero, Legarda, Recto, Revilla, Zubiri, Villar, and the two Cayetanos expressed reservation over the impeachment call because the impeachment proceedings are bound to end up at the Senate. Article XI, Section 3 of the Philippine Constitution specifically states that "no person shall be convicted without the concurrence of two-thirds of all the Members of the Senate." Escudero, who also chairs the Senate justice committee, aerlier explained that this would mean that 16 votes are needed to impeach Gutierrez because there are 24 allocated Senate seats. Not final? Escudero had said that the Senate blue ribbon committee's recommendation to impeach Gutierrrez was invalid because majority of the senators who signed the report expressed reservation only on that specific point. On Monday, Sotto also said that any committee report is not deemed final and can still be amended as long as it hasn't been approved in plenary by the Senate. "A committee report is just a committee report. It is not the final committee report unless it is passed in plenary," he said "As of the moment, that is the opinion of the one who wrote the committee report. That is not the opinion of the Senate," he added. Sotto likewise said he doubts the Senate will accept Guingona's report because it is incomplete. Guingona had earlier said that he might present the blue ribbon report during plenary even if it still doesn't contain findings on the alleged corruption in the military. Sotto added that the Senate secretariat has yet to receive a copy of the partial blue ribbon committee report. Meanwhile, Sotto said that the most "probable time" that the impeachment trial can start is by the second week of May. In a separate interview, Senate President Pro Tempore Jinggoy Estrada said that they had started talking about the possible amendments in the rules for the impeachment proceedings during a caucus on Monday afternoon. — RSJ, GMA News