Merci awards policemen on last day as Ombudsman

Performing her last duty as the country's Ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez on Friday afternoon awarded policemen who have good attendance records. Bishop Willie Ricablanca of the Community Force Multipliers for Peace, Inc. (CFMPI) said Gutierrez was sad when she handed out certificates of appreciation to cops from eight police stations who have good attendance records. "Kanya po yang proyekto, kaya nga nalulungkot siya... makikita rin naman sa kanya (That's her project, so naturally she will be sad leaving it behind. You can see it from her expression)," Ricablanca told reporters in an interview at the Office of the Ombudsman. He said Gutierrez, who avoided the media throughout the day, was the brains behind the CFMPI and the Office of the Ombudsman's six-month-old police attendance monitoring project. "Masaya naman siya [dahil] at least may nagawa siya sa ating bayan na maganda at natupad niya ang kanyang tungkulin bagamat hindi nga natapos ang kanyang term (She's happy that at least she did something good for the country and that she was able to fulfill her duty, even though she wasn't able to finish her term)," he said. Gutierrez resigned from her office on April 29, or 10 days before her impeachment trial at the Senate was set to begin. Her resignation will take effect Friday (May 6). Her term would have ended in December 2012. Ricablanca, however, said the outgoing Ombudsman told them that she will not stop helping the country even after she has stepped down. "Ipagpapatuloy niya ang laban kahit wala na siya sa Ombudsman...sa korupsyon (She will continue her fight against corruption even though she's no longer the Ombudsman)," he said. In her farewell speech delivered last Wednesday, Gutierrez asked her subordinates to support her replacement. Earlier in the day, two groups announced that they will be filing graft and obstruction of justice charges against the Gutierrez before the Department of Justice (DOJ). — RSJ, GMA News