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Guns-for-hire saloon
First posted 09:54:29
(Mla time) May 25, 2010
Juan
Mercado
Cebu Daily News
Disbar the Ombudsman,” retired
businessman Zeferino Arroyo Jr. e-mailed from Quezon City. Merceditas Gutierrez thumbed her nose at a Supreme Court order
to prosecute those linked to the P1.4-billion Mega-Pacific computer scandal.
Disbarment adds a fourth option to three
being weighed by the incoming Aquino government, the 80-year-old businessman argues. All seek to end the scandal of a constitutional
public interests defender converted into a legal flak jacket for the outgoing president, her family and cronies.
The
three options were: (a) impeachment; (b) forced resignation; (c) legal challenge to term of office, Rep. Erin Taņada (Quezon)
told Newsbreak Online‘s Rufo Aries.
They’d address scams that Gutierrez pigeonholed: Joc-joc Bolantes’
P728-million fertilizer scam, the $329-million National Broadband Network scandal and exorbitant ASEAN Summit lampposts, among
others.
The Ombudsman’s inaction on sleaze – from rigged bids for World Bank road construction loans to
euro generals – embedded fraud, asserted former Senate President Jovito Salonga and 31 civil society leaders. They filed
impeachment charges.
A Lower House controlled by Arroyo partisans torpedoed the charges. “Let Ms Gutierrez be,”
snapped the First Gentleman. “We were not classmates, merely schoolmates,” he added. “Let her do her job.”
There
is a proposal to revisit Sen. Francis Escudero’s legal question on Gutierrez’s stay. The Constitution pegs the
Ombudsman’s term at seven years, Escudero argued. Marcelo served for three years. Gutierrez had only four years to act
as Ombudsman. Her term, Escudero insisted, expired last October 2009.
It’s not that clear cut, cautions UP professor
Harry Roque, an Ombudsman critic. RA 6770 states appointment is for a full term.
Disbarment could be anchored to the
Ombudsman’s dogged refusal to implement a Supreme Court decision. Under Benjamin Abalos, the Commission on Elections
rigged the purchase of P1.4-billion of Mega-Pacific computers. “Credible, orderly and peaceful elections (were) put
in jeopardy by the illegal and gravely abusive acts,” the Court found.
Guiterrez a scoffed at the Court order
to get back the money. No one was liable, she ruled. “Where in the world does a major crime occur without a criminal?”
asked Viewpoint (PDI/ July 29, 2008) “Onli in da Pilipins.”
Disbarment of a rabid partisan will test a
Supreme Court and a new chief justice criticized for partiality for the departing president. “Hit two birds with one
stone,” Arroyo urged.
Unless checkmated, Gutierrez would slog for her benefactress well into the mid-term of
President Benigno Aquino III. Would that be hand-in-glove with an Arroyo Supreme Court that gave it’s chief justice
a “Cinderalla exemption” through a midnight appointment?
Such a scenario retains the Ombudsman as a guns-for-hire
saloon, as in the “bad old days” of Aniano Desierto. Yet, it was not always so.
“There’s only
one accolade President Arroyo can give Simeon Marcelo when he resigns,” Viewpoint noted on Oct 20, 2005. “That’s
to appoint another Simeon Marcelo.”
“Men of talent, vision and rock hard integrity are the rarest of resources.
Reforms will hinge on who the President picks to fill Marcelo’s shoes. But ‘the heart of man and the bottom of
the sea, are unfathomable’ And the final decision rests with the President.”
What was
in the heart of Gutierrez and her patron are now patent. The Philippine Human Development Report 2009 analyzed the track record.
Conviction rates slumped “dramatically to 14.4 percent by first semester of 2008,” PHDR noted. Rates (dipped)
to as low as 5 percent in March, then 3 percent in May. It was zero by June. Three months later, only 7 percent of the 349
cases brought forward by the Ombudsman resulted in jail terms .
That slide persisted into 2009. There has been a parallel
erosion in public perception of the Ombudsman’s sincerity. A 2004 survey tracked Marcelo’s rating at +24. In 2008,
Gutierrez’s work – or lack of it – whittled down the Ombudsman’s rating to +4.
Two weeks before
the 2010 election, Marcelo told the Cebu Business Club: Corruption now saps P434 billion yearly. In the first 100 days of
office, the new President should create a task force to recover the ill-gotten wealth of the past and present administrations.
Such
essential reforms will be derailed if the Ombudsman and other anti-graft bodies – Commissions on Audit and Civil Service
and the Sandiganbayan – remain shackled by partisan politics. He fretted over the President’s undue influence
on the Supreme Court, CEBU DAILY NEWS reported.
“The plan to file cases against the Arroyo administration with
the Ombudsman will look good on TV, radio and newspapers. But unless the Ombudsman is liberated, they’ll just be dismissed.”
Marcelo
said he wanted former Sen. Wigberto “Bobby” Taņada to be the next Ombudsman. “If we’re serious about
cleaning up corruption, and if you want to have credibility, it’s Bobby Taņada."
“This is the most important
appointment Noynoy will make, bar none,” Arroyo e-mailed from Quezon City, “If Gutierrez is ejected, and Taņada
is Ombudsman, the cleansing process will start.”
Gutierrez continues to ooze with utang na loob. This is an exquisite
Filipino trait. Unfortunately, it can also sell the citizens short.
“Men are often bribed more by their loyalties
and ambition, than by money,” Justice Robert Jackson once said.
Copyright INQUIRER.net.
All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
________________________________________________________________
Ombudsman unfairly maligned
Philippine
Daily Inquirer - 5/26/2010
This refers to the Viewpoint column of Juan Mercado, entitled “Guns-for-hire saloon.” (Inquirer, 5/25/10)
The article does Ms Ma. Merceditas N. Gutierrez, the Ombudsman, wrong because it most cruelly pictured her as in the
league of conscienceless individuals who, for a price, monetary or otherwise, would kill or maim or destroy another who may
be innocent of any wrongdoing.
“Metaphorical language is a favored vehicle for slander,” said our honorable Supreme Court in the case
of Lacsa vs. Intermediate Appellate Court, 161 SCRA 427 (1988).
But Mr. Mercado’s article is not only libelous; it is also a perversion of the journalistic ethic of not reporting
as true allegations which have no basis in fact.
In his article, Mr. Mercado cited an alleged e-mail sent to him by one Quezon City businessman, Zeferino Arroyo Jr.,
purportedly calling for Ombudsman Gutierrez’s disbarment.
We hasten to clarify that the grounds for disbarment are laid down in Sec. 27 of Rule 138 of the Rules of Court, and
Ms Gutierrez has not committed any one of them.
As to the allegations of wrongdoing in relation to big-time cases still unresolved or in which no total closure has
been had, such as the Mega-Pacific case and the one involving former justice secretary Hernando Perez, incidences concerning
them have been raised before the high court whose decision thereon everybody, including the Office of the Ombudsman, still
awaits.
But all these allegations of wrongdoing allegedly committed by the Ombudsman, including the Joc-joc Bolante case, have
been publicly discussed and publicly answered ad nauseam, and perhaps it might be better that next time around they are not
answered anymore.
We would like to ask Mr. Mercado to provide us with the e-mail address of the businessman Arroyo, so that he could
be invited personally to visit the Ombudsman’s office and see for himself the progress accomplished during the four
years Ms Gutierrez has been in office.
Such progress includes, contrary to what Mr. Mercado’s article said, a higher conviction rate achieved under
Ms Gutierrez’s watch. Briefly the conviction rates of the office before she assumed office are: 16 percent (2001), 31
percent (2002), 14 percent (2003), 24 percent (2004) and 33 percent (2005). After she assumed office: 19 percent (2006), 55
percent (2007), 73 percent (2008) and 33.6 percent (2009).
Please request your journalists not to demonize all the time any public servant because it is not doing our country
any good. Journalists may come up with reports critical of the official performance of public servants, but these should be
backed by facts and figures.
And more, journalists should not write articles in the mode of “etong sinabi sa akin eh, binabato ko lang!”
Journalism in our country would be hopeless if journalists write that way, and if they accept inputs from sources whose motives
may turn out to be driven by malevolence or bias.
—ASST. OMBUDSMAN JOSE T. DE JESUS, JR.,
spokesman, Office of the Ombudsman
The curious case of the Ombudsman
By Fr. Joaquin G. Bernas, S.J.
Philippine
Daily Inquirer
THE mandate of the Ombudsman is found in Section 12 of Article XI of the Constitution:
“The Ombudsman and his Deputies, as protectors of the people, shall act promptly on complaints filed in any form or
manner against public officials or employees of the Government, or any subdivision, agency or instrumentality thereof, including
government-owned or controlled corporations, and shall, in appropriate cases, notify the complainants of the action taken
and the result thereof.”
At the time of the deliberations of the Constitutional Commission there existed a
Tanodbayan endowed with broad powers. He was both investigator and prosecutor. The intention of the Commission, however, was
to break up these broad powers by separating the prosecutorial function from the function of a “pure Ombudsman who will
use the prestige and persuasive powers of his office” to call the attention of government officials to any impropriety
in their actions.
The clear intention of the Commission was to create an office for a person of unquestioned
integrity; a saint, you might say. His integrity would be such that even one phone call from him should be able to produce
results.
I ask my readers how faithfully Presidents have observed this requirement in their
choice of Ombudsmen.
Commissioner Jose Colayco further elaborated that what was envisioned was an office
which could act in a quick, inexpensive and effective manner on complaints against administrative officials. The system would
not require any formal complaint. A complaint could be even by telephone and the Ombudsman would be obliged to investigate
and to demand documents from officials concerned. For that reason the Ombudsman would be given stature by elevating his office
to the rank of a chairman of a constitutional commission.
How faithfully has this desire for quick and effective action been fulfilled by Ombudsmen
past and present?
Furthermore, in order to emphasize the intention that the Ombudsman’s power
would not flow from his authority to send people to jail but rather from his moral ascendancy, it was initially meant that
he would not be a prosecutor. Commissoner Jose Bengzon described him as a “sumbongero” and Commissioner Ricardo
Romulo called him a “busybody” who could initiate investigation on his own. The task of prosecutor would be given
to a Special Prosecutor.
The main opponent of this “sumbongero only” proposal was Commissioner
Francisco Rodrigo. Essentially, Rodrigo argued that, whereas the existing office of Tanodbayan had teeth, the proposed Ombudsman
would be a toothless tiger and an expensive but useless appendage.
Rodrigo’s objection notwithstanding, the proposed office of Ombudsman distinct
from a Special Prosecutor was approved. Rodrigo’s lament would later find a receptive ear in Congress and the Ombudsman
Act, R.A. 6770, would give prosecutorial powers to the Ombudsman. But where would that leave the Special Prosecutor (who incidentally
now claims to being sidelined by the Ombudsman)?
The first major case that reached the Supreme Court about the office of Ombudsman
involved the power relation between the Ombudsman and the Special Prosecutor. The harmonization desired by the Constitution
regarding powers over corruption in public office was thus: the Sandiganbayan would be the court with jurisdiction over erring
public officials; the “people’s champion” function would belong to the Ombudsman; and there would be a Special
Prosecutor.
But as to the Special Prosecutor’s power, Section 7 of Article XI says the
Special Prosecutor shall perform the functions of the former Tanodbayan (who was both investigator and prosecutor) “except
those conferred on the Office of the Ombudsman under this Constitution.”
This led the Supreme Court to conclude that since the power to investigate had been
given by Section 13(1) to the Ombudsman, the Special Prosecutor could neither investigate nor prosecute unless authorized
by the Ombudsman. Thus in the mind of the Supreme Court there is this strange phenomenon: the Special Prosecutor created by
the Constitution has no authority to prosecute unless authorized by the Ombudsman who himself, under the Constitution, was
not originally meant to be a prosecutor.
Out of this curious phenomenon has arisen the still more curious situation we have
today. The Ombudsman, who by statute has been given control over prosecutorial powers, is being threatened with impeachment
on the claimed basis that she has not championed the people’s cause but rather the cause of persons special to her.
Meanwhile, the Special Prosecutor, who won fame when he successfully prosecuted former President Estrada, claims that he is
being sidelined by the Ombudsman with the support of Assistant Prosecutors aligned with her.
If for nothing else, I do hope that the impeachment of the Ombudsman will reach trial
stage so that the dynamics of the inner workings of the Office of the Ombudsman can be fully unraveled.
But then, considering the present composition of the House of Representatives, what
are the chances that the impeachment will reach trial stage? Alas, how imperfect our world is!
http://opinion.inquirer.net/inquireropinion/columns/view/20090309-193041/The-curious-case-of-the-Ombudsman
Despite change in admin, Ombudsman to hang
on
05/20/2010
With a new administration about to take over, the office of Ombudsman
Merceditas Gutierrez on Wednesday night asserted her term ends in 2012, as prescribed by the 1987 Philippine Constitution. Gutierrez,
who was appointed by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo in December 2005, would leave her office in December 2012 because the
Charter gives her office a fixed term of seven years. Earlier, Quezon fourth district Representative and Liberal Party
spokesperson Erin Taņada told Newsbreak magazine that the looming new administration of Sen. Benigno Aquino III might have
to find out ways to appoint a new Ombudsman because of Gutierrez’s perceived close ties to President Arroyo. The
camp of Aquino, who ran using an anti-corruption platform, believes the Ombudsman's office under Gutierrez would put to waste
its anti-corruption efforts. But on Wednesday night, a statement on the Office of the Ombudsman’s website quoted
Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus as saying that "those who insist that [Gutierrez’s] term was up already [should] raise
the same before the proper forum and not to make a play out of it in the media." De Jesus added that Gutierrez would
only leave if a "competent authority should say her term has indeed ended, they can be sure she will abide and comply with
the verdict. Otherwise…the Ombudsman will continue to perform her task…up to the end of her term in 2012." Section 11, Article XI of the 1987 Constitution provides that "the Ombudsman and his deputies shall serve for a term of seven years without reappointment." Further,
Republic Act No. 6770, also known as the Ombudsman Act of 1989, says: "The Ombudsman and his deputies, including the special prosecutor, shall
serve for a term of seven years without reappointment." Gutierrez, the batchmate of First Gentleman Jose Miguel Arroyo
at the Ateneo de Manila University College of Law, has been accused of sitting on controversial cases that involved the First
Family. Gutierrez has since denied the allegations. Her office allegedly tried to protect powerful people connected
with the Arroyo administration, such as former Agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn “Joc-Joc" Bolante who allegedly maneuvered
the diversion of P728-million in fertilizer funds to the campaign kitty of President Arroyo in 2004. [See: Ombudsman Gutierrez focusing on small fry, ignoring big fish - Marcelo] In September last year, the House of Representatives’ justice committee, composed mostly of Arroyo allies,
dismissed an impeachment complaint against Gutierrez due to insufficiency in substance. The complaint, filed in March
2009 by Senate President Jovito Salonga and 30 other civil society leaders, charged Gutierrez with betrayal of public trust
and culpable violation of the 1987 Constitution in the handling of several controversies involving the First Family and President
Arroyo’s allies. These issues include the Mega Pacific and corruption case against former Elections chair Benjamin
Abalos Sr., the World Bank mess regarding the sanctioning of three Filipino construction firms over alleged collusion, and
the fertilizer fund scam, among others. — with Sophia Dedace/RSJ/LBG, GMANews.TV
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EDITORIAL
Philippines: More pain, no gain
Faced with massive public debt, abject poverty, a rapidly expanding population
and mediocre economic growth, the Philippines, a once rich and promising nation, has become a social catastrophe. In a prelude
to an upcoming series, Asia Times Online notes some disturbing facts as to why it's time to bell the cat.
PART 1
The sick man of Asia
Forty years ago the Philippines was considered the most
dynamic economy in the region; today it is the sick man of Asia. The demographics are alarming: abject poverty, ballooning
debt, abysmal unemployment, and on and on. President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's solution is austerity, though more suffering
is the last thing Filipinos need. Perhaps it would just be better to pray.
PART
2
Goodfellas, with Tagalog subtitles
Greenhills in Manila, where the few Filipino haves live, is a
perfect microcosm of the Philippines: a small group of elites devise rules that exclude the rest of the country's 84 million,
mostly poor, people. That could also describe Congress, where families are the crux of the political machine, and they're
all rich, courtesy of the state they are meant to serve.
PART 3
Poverty and corruption: he ties that bind
The Philippines is stuck in a four-decade-long crisis, and the evidence lies at Smoky Mountain, a 40-year-old mountain
of garbage in the capital inhabited by nearly 30,000 people. The cause of such dire poverty? Not corruption, as one might
think. Rich or poor, corruption is everywhere, but throw in the swinging pendulum of power and that's when things stink.
PART 4
Last one leaving please turn off the lights
Filipino maid Sundays in Hong Kong's
Central district are one of Asia's social anthropology highlights. Part of an original drive to repay the Philippines' mounting
international debt, the maids are now among the 7.5 million legalized overseas Filipino workers. Former president Cory Aquino
used to call the Hong Kong amahs "national heroes", but with remittances of US$7.6 billion last year alone, the government
now wants a chunk of this money. -
PART 5
All quiet on the second front
With a 57% approval rating among Filipinos, George W Bush has proved that if
he can't win favor in the US - or most of the world - at least he can win it in the Philippines. Judging by its economic and
security nightmares, however, there are serious doubts whether the Philippines' "special relationship" with the US as the
second front in the "war on terror" has done any good for the country.
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