Ombudsman: No grounds for impeachment

MANILA, Philippines - Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez insisted yesterday that “there are no grounds for me to be impeached” amid plans by certain groups to file an impeachment case against her at the House of Representatives.

Breaking her self-imposed silence, Gutierrez called a press conference yesterday at the Office of the Ombudsman in Quezon City to defend herself.

Declaring that she would not give in to pressure for her to resign, she said she would leave her fate to Congress if her detractors file a complaint.

Reached for comment, Quezon City Rep. Feliciano Belmonte Jr., likely to become the new House speaker, said, “We need to study it very carefully.”

Gutierrez said the Office of the Ombudsman supports the Aquino administration’s “Kung walang corrupt, walang mahirap” policy, which is why the anti-graft agency decides cases on the basis of law and evidence presented before it.

Asked if she would consider filing a courtesy resignation, a crowd of officials and employees answered “no” to which she said, “Yun na yung sagot ko, yung sagot ng aking mga kasamahan dito sa opisina (that’s my answer, the answer of my co-workers here in the office).”

She explained that the closeness between her and the former first family is an old issue raised before members of the Judicial and Bar Council (JBC) that recommended her appointment as Ombudsman and even unanimously voted her to office.

“Is that a ground to say that I cannot be independent, that I cannot be impartial, who else would appoint but the president,” she said in Filipino.

“In the discharge of our official functions we adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution. In deciding cases, we rely solely on the evidence uncovered or presented to our investigators or prosecutors,” she said.

“Like many constitutional officials, the Ombudsman has a fixed term and can be removed only by impeachment. The Constitution enumerates the specific grounds for impeachment. Alleged closeness to the appointing authority is not one of them,” she stressed.

Truth Commission backed

Gutierrez said she would cooperate with and support President Aquino’s Truth Commission to be headed by former Chief Justice Hilario Davide.

She called on critics to stop prejudging Davide even as he was also an appointee or official of the former administration which the panel would investigate.

“I am confident that the Truth Commission under his (Davide’s) leadership will act only on the bases of law and admissible evidence, observe due process with the end in view of putting closure to all high profile cases,” Gutierrez said.

“Needless to state, the Office of the Ombudsman will extend full appropriate assistance and cooperation to the commission in carrying out its mandate,” she said.

“I hope that some quarters will stop prejudging the future actions of former chief justice Hilario Davide in the investigation of charges against former President Arroyo, just because he was once appointed as Philippine representative to the United Nations, in the same way that this early they are prejudging my actions on the findings of the Truth Commission, just because I was appointed by the former president.”

Hurt too

Gutierrez, who rarely appears in press conferences, said the attacks and criticisms against her are part of the job.

However, she said she is also “a human being who gets hurt when unfairly treated by those wanting to put her down.”

“I have been in government for almost 38 years, but I was never involved in any anomaly. I’m not corrupt. That’s what I can be proud of. I did not steal a single centavo from government coffers. But I’m not sure with my detractors if they did the same,” she said in Filipino.

“We live in a democratic country. Whatever they say then take it as a challenge, but it should not be personal or that would affect my family. Let us all be professionals in the conduct of our work as government officials,” Gutierrez said.

On fertilizer scam

On the fertilizer fund scam, Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus Jr. explained that the Field Investigation Office (FIO) of the Office of the Ombudsman did not recommend the filing of plunder charges against former agriculture secretary Luis Lorenzo and undersecretary Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante because there is no evidence yet to prove it.

He said although P728 million is more than the threshold figure of P50 million, “there are elements to prove the case of plunder and our investigators have not found any yet.”

De Jesus said a plunder case should show accumulation or amassing of ill-gotten wealth among others to satisfy the elements under the plunder law.

“Clearly there was misappropriation. Our fact-finding probers believe there was misappropriation and malversation is the justifiable charge,” he said.

Last week, the FIO said it had found sufficient basis to charge Lorenzo, Bolante and more than 20 other government officials and employees for malversation of public funds, graft, falsification of public documents, and other administrative cases. –With Aurea Calica, Paolo Romero