MANILA, Philippines - House Speaker Feliciano Belmonte Jr. virtually admitted that there are not enough congressmen to impeach Ombudsman Merceditas Guttierez.

Belmonte said on Thursday that the administration Liberal Party (LP) doesn't have a party stand on the issue, which is a campaign commitment of President Benigno Aquino III.

Belmonte stressed he himself is not in favor of collecting signatures  to fast-track the case against Gutierrez for trial in the Senate.

"If there's a party stand, what's to stop the party from collecting votes? But as I said, I'm not in favor of such a thing, walang official party stand. Even if it did, the LP has only 81 members. Let the whole thing go through the process," he said.

Belmonte's tack goes against previous Congress experience where the fate of impeachment cases was fast-tracked by the collection or non-collection of signatures from congressmen.

In the 11th Congress, the opposition quickly mustered the required number of signatures by voting along party lines to impeach then President Estrada.

In the 14th Congress, allies of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo used numerical superiority to defend her from 3 impeachment cases.

Belmonte also said: " Yung impeachment has its own rules. You're given X number of session days within which to finish your work and make report to the chamber itself. I don't think it's a good idea. Let it be heard properly and people be given a chance to explain. It's not impossible for people to sign an impeachment [complaint], but  like fast-tracking, I don't think it's a good idea, I wouldn't encourage it. I'd like to have it go through its own, let it be heard in the justice committee. I'm against it. I'm advocating due process."

Yet even as he invoked due process, Belmonte defended House justice committee chair Niel Tupas Jr. from questions of impropriety.

Tupas was asked by some lawmakers to inhibit from handling the case as his father and namesake, a former governor of Iloilo, was charged by the Ombudsman before the Sandiganbayan anti-graft court.

"There was that thing I can tell you with confidence in Congressman Tupas Jr., he's an upright person," Belmonte said.

Aquino critics have seen the Ombudsman's case as a test of his hold on the chamber, which traditionally becomes an ally of the President to facilitate pork barrel releases for congressional projects.

Yet, Aquino's own party, has failed to establish a clear majority of party mates in the House of Representatives, and has only managed to control it through a coalition with smaller parties like the Nacionalista Party, the Nationalist People's Coalition, and 2 breakaway factions of Arroyo's Lakas-Kampi-CMD party.

Such an arrangement is not new to this Congress and has happened in the past only to ensure congressmen get plum chairmanships.

Gutierrez's ouster was pushed by Aquino as a way to fulfill a campaign promise to hold Arroyo accountable for allegations of corruption during her 9 years in power.

Gutierrez has been accused of protecting Arroyo by either sitting or outrightly dismissing cases against her and her allies.