An impeachment complaint was filed Monday morning at the House of Representatives against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

Gutierrez was accused of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution for her alleged "inaction and mishandling" of various cases pending before her office.

ANC tried to get the side of Gutierrez but her office said she will hold a news conference at 2 p.m..

The complainants were were led by former Senator Jovito Salonga and civic group Kilosbayan. It was endorsed by Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros Baraquel.
 
“Unfortunately, with Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas N. Gutierrez at the helm since 1 December 2005, the public trust has completely collapsed,” the complaint said. “Protector of the People has transformed into the coddler of the powerful and corrupt." 

'Sitting on cases'

The complaint lamented how Gutierrez sat on “clear graft and corruption cases, some leading to the President herself or that of her closest associates.”

Gutierrez is a close ally of President Arroyo. Before she was appointed Ombudsman in December 2005, she served the Arroyo administration in various posts--chief presidential legal counsel, acting executive secretary, and Secretary of the Department of Justice.

She was also a classmate of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo at Ateneo de Manila University School of Law.  

“The prosecution and conviction of high-ranking officials, involving huge sums of taxpayer’s money, remain scarce under the watch of the incumbent Ombudsman, even as low-ranking public officials have been charged at the Sandiganbayan,” the complaint said.

It cited as grounds for betrayal of public trust her “inaction, mishandling, or downright dismissal” of the following high-profile cases:

• P1.3 billion Mega-Pacific equipment purchase contract entered into by former Commission on Elections (Comelec) chief Benjamin Abalos Sr., which was was later voided by the Supreme Court; 
• the collusion and bid-rigging in the US$150 million World Bank-financed roads project; 
• extortion case against former Justice Secretary Hernando ‘Nani’ Perez; 
• P1 billion fertilizer fund mess involving former Agriculture Undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc” Bolante;
• the caper involving former PNP comptroller Gen. Eliseo dela Paz, who was caught carrying 105,000 euros (P6.9 million), which exceeded the 3,000 euro limit for departing passengers in Moscow;
• arbitrary dismissal of Iloilo Gov. Neil Tupas and Bataan Gov. Enrique Garcia;  

The dismissal of governors Tupas and Garcia, and the delayed action in the graft and corruption cases against Perez, Bolante, and Dela Paz, also constitute culpable violation of the Constitution, the complaint said.

The former involved violation of the governors’s right to due process while the latter violated the people’s right to a speedy disposition of cases.  

“This Impeachment complaint must prosper so that the Filipino people’s cry for justice against graft and corruption, regardless of stature and political affiliation, will be heard,” the complaint added.

'Biased toward Arroyo family'

Hontiveros said Gutierrez has tarnished the institution with her "incompetence and apparent bias towards the Arroyo family."

The Akbayan representative also called on her colleagues to rise above partisan politics and immediately move for the impeachment of Gutierrez.

“There were about half a dozen courses of action including the Ombudsman's inaction on the Mega Pacific scam, the World Bank collusion scam, the fertilizer fund scam and her mishandling of the cases involving  former [Justice] Secretary Nani Perez, Governors Neil Tupaz and Tet Garcia and the euro generals,” Hontiveros told ANC in an interview after the complaint was filed. 

“These six courses of action constituting basically two grounds for impeachment, namely betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the constitution,” she said.

Gutierrez had been the subject of criticism for supposedly sitting on the World Bank report on alleged collusion and bid rigging in road projects as well as the fertilizer fund scam.

Not ‘people’s protector’

In a statement, civil society leaders who filed the complaint said the Ombudsman has failed to meet the people’s expectations of being the “protector of the people.”

“Unfortunately, with Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas N. Gutierrez at  the helm since 1 December 2005, the public trust has completely collapsed. Ombudsman Gutierrez has clearly failed the Filipino people with her inaction, mishandling and downright dismissal of clear cases of graft and corruption, some leading to the President herself and that of her closest associates,” they said after filing the complaint.

“The Ombudsman Act of 1989 has completely lost its teeth because of Ombudsman Gutierrez' gross and manifest incompetence or simple refusal to perform her duties. This is an evident betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution,” they said.

“The collapse of public trust leads to the collapse of institutions. And the collapse of institutions causes the collapse of democracy. Our democratic processes have been rendered inutile by our Tanodbayan, as proven by the fact that high-profile cases that involve graft and corruption of insurmountable amounts of public funds have either been gathering dust or have been permanently relegated to the Archives,” they added.

'The protector of the people has been transformed now as the coddler of the powerful and corrupt. Look at the perpetrators of cases like the Mega-Pacific poll computerization, the multi-million peso fertilizer fund diversion, the P6.9 million Euro Generals intelligence fund mess and the most recent, the multi-billion World Bank-road projects collusive scheme.  All government officials dragged into these scandals remain free and worse, they have not even been investigated by the Ombudsman,” they said.  –with reports from ANC; Jun Lingcoran, dzMM