House assures Ombudsman of fairness in impeachment proceedings

MANILA, Philippines - Quezon City Rep. Matias Defensor, chairman of the House justice committee, yesterday assured Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez of impartial proceedings in the impeachment complaint filed against her.

“This I can assure the Ombudsman, we will give equal treatment to both the prosecution and defense,” Defensor said. “I think an impeachment complaint against the President or any other impeachable official should be treated equally.”

The impeachment process against Gutierrez started yesterday after the House of Representatives decided to refer the 33-page complaint filed by a group headed by former senator Jovito Salonga to the committee on justice.

The verified impeachment complaint, which was endorsed by five militant opposition lawmakers, has been included in the official order of business of the House, and was turned over to the justice committee of Defensor.

Defensor said he has five working days to inform his members about the referral. He added they might not be able to schedule the hearings next week, but probably on the last week of the month.

The panel, to which the complaint will be referred and will undergo scrutiny for sufficiency in form and substance, would decide whether the complaint is meritorious, and eventually turn it over to the plenary for voting and transmittal to the Senate for trial.

“Of course we cannot say that we would give too much attention here. The Ombudsman is a minor official so I think the sense of importance would not be there, but I guess we should give it top priority,” he told newsmen in the weekly Ayes and Nays forum in Quezon City.

To point out the degree of importance, Defensor cited the case of impeaching an incumbent President, whose impeachment trial will be presided over by no less than the chief justice of the Supreme Court, who represents the third branch of government – the judiciary.

In the case of the Ombudsman, Defensor said the presiding judge in the impeachment trial would be the Senate president.

Defensor expects to officially receive the complaint today, but doubted if he could calendar it for hearing next week, especially since House rules provide that he has five working days to inform other members of the House justice committee.

“I doubt whether we could schedule it by next week. You see we have to inform all the members. If we can inform the members by Monday then we could schedule it the next week,” he said. Lawmakers only have three session days every week, Monday to Wednesday.