Ombudsman standing firm on ruling favoring Comelec

The Office of the Ombudsman stood firm yesterday on its decision clearing Commission on Elections (Comelec) officials and MegaPacific Consortium executives of criminal and administrative liabilities over the voided P1.3-billion electoral automation project.

In a 24-page consolidated comment submitted to the Supreme Court, the body said Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez has no intention to bring dishonor to her office or to renege from the proper exercise of her sworn duties.

"The Ombudsman knows where she stands in the hierarchy in the structure of governance of the Republic of the Philippines," the comment read.

The comment also dismissed as "misleading allegations" the claims of Senators Aquilino Pimentel Jr., Sergio Osmeña III, Panfilo Lacson, Alfredo Lim, Maria Ana Consuelo "Jamby" Madrigal, Luisa Ejercito, Jinggoy Estrada, Richard Gordon, and Rodolfo Biazon, as well as by the Information Technology Foundation of the Philippines (ITFP) that Gutierrez should be held for indirect contempt for not following the Court’s order when her office cleared the Comelec and MegaPacific.

"It is most unkind to ascribe to this Honorable Court that it issued any such directive that the Ombudsman’s sole remaining task is to identify the specific personalities, who are probably guilty thereof," read the comment.

The Office of the Ombudsman said the Supreme Court gave the Ombudsman "unbounded independence to come up with its own determination on both whether there was probable cause that (a) a crime has been committed, and (b) the person who probably committed it."

The Office of the Ombudsman submitted its comment to the Supreme Court in response to a petition by the senators and ITFP that Gutierrez be cited for indirect contempt for committing "grave abuse of discretion" when she cleared the Comelec and MegaPacific from all criminal and administrative liability for lack of evidence.

In its Sept. 27, 2006 resolution, the Office of the Ombudsman cleared Comelec Chairman Benjamin Abalos and Commissioners Resurreccion Borra and Florentino Tuason, and retired Commissioners Rufino Javier, Mehol Sadain, Luzviminda Tancangco and Pablo Ralph Lantion; Comelec Bids and Awards Committee chairman Eduardo Mejos, and BAC members Gideon de Guzman, Jose Balbuena, and Bartolome Sinocruz from all criminal and administrative liabilities.

Also cleared were MegaPacific executives Willy Yu, Bonnie Yu, Enrique Tansipek, Pedro Tan, Johnson Fong and Lauriano Barrios. –Mike Frialde