Should We Give Mercy to the "Merciless?"

On September 2 and 7, the Committee on Justice convened for the determination of sufficiency in form and substance of the two impeachment complaints filed against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

Immediately after the Committee declared the complaints sufficient both in form and substance, Gutierrez sought the Supreme Court's intervention by filing a petition saying that the committee's decision to hear 2 impeachment complaints simultaneously violated a constitutional provision allowing only one impeachment case a year.

As Inquirer aptly puts in its banner story "Swift SC mercy for Merci," indeed, mercy came too swiftly for Ombudsman Gutierrez.

Voting 8-3-4, the SC ruled in favor of Gutierrez ordering the Committee on Justice to observe a Status Quo Ante, with literal meaning the "way things were before." As in the words of Supreme Court Spokesperson Midas Gutierrez, “the tribunal’s directive meant that the panel should observe the situation before it decided to give due course to two separate impeachment complaints after finding them sufficient in form and substance.”

Below are the general allegations hurled against Ombudsman Gutierrez filed by the complainants Renato Reyes of BAYAN, and Sister Mary John Mananzan of Pagbabago, among others:

a) Failure and omission to act promptly on the anomalous disbursement of funds and other anomalous transactions in the case of the "Fertilizer Scam"

b) Refusal to prosecute Gen. Eliseo de la Paz, one of the "Euro Generals" for his illegal act of not declaring before custom officials the more than Ten Thousand US Dollars.

c) Repeated failure to take action on the poll automation contract awarded to the Mega Pacific Consortium which was declared anomalous and void by the Supreme Court in 2004.

Ombudsman Gutierrez has notoriously stalled all cases of anomalies involving former president and now Pampanga 3rd District Representative Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. Quoting from the complainants, Ombudsman Gutierrez "miserably failed to live up to the role of ombudsman during the five years she has held the position."

It is clear that more influential people are behind the decision, and that there are concerted and desperate efforts to shield Ombudsman Gutierrez from the impeachment complaints.#