Ombudsman resigns

Manila, Philippines - Days before she was to stand trial before a Senate impeachment court, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez announced yesterday her resignation effective May 6, citing her wish to spare the nation from a long and divisive impeachment process.

“At a time when the present administration is in its infancy and beset with more urgent problems, the last thing that the nation needs is for the House and the Senate to be embroiled in a long drawn-out impeachment proceeding against a single public official,” Gutierrez said.

She personally handed to President Aquino her resignation letter.

She said she arrived at the decision during the Holy Week after much reflection and consultation with family members and loved ones.

“The President needs an Ombudsman in whom he has complete trust and confidence. To carry on my battle to cleanse my name before the Senate would detract from the time which could otherwise be devoted to legislative work which would address the needs of millions of Filipino people,” she stressed.

She said the country and its officials may now focus on more compelling problems “rather than expending so much time, effort and resources to remove me from public office.” Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro temporarily takes over her position after May 6.

In a press briefing, Gutierrez also said she wanted to correct misconception that she was beholden to the one who appointed her, former President and now Pampanga congresswoman Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. She said she is accountable only to the Filipino people and the Constitution.

“While I acknowledge with deep gratitude the opportunity given me by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, my undivided loyalty always was, is, and will forever remain, to the Constitution and the Filipino people,” she stressed.

“As I leave the Office of the Ombudsman, however, it is my fervent hope that the misconception bred that having been appointed to public office by former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo, I owed my allegiance to her and am accountable only to her, and not to the Filipino people and the Constitution be discarded and laid to rest,” she said.

“In the words of the late Chief Justice Earl Warren of the United States Supreme Court, judicial officers like me have no constituency, serve no majority or minority but serve only the public interest as they see it in accordance with their oath of office, guided only by the Constitution and their conscience and honor,” she said.

She also thanked her supporters “because they believed I was innocent” but claimed no feeling of hatred toward her accusers.

“I bear them no rancor because I have learned to make myself believe that we all love our country and our people no matter how our judgments might differ, I shall leave this Office with regret at not completing my term, but with gratitude for the privilege of serving as Ombudsman for the past five years,” she said.

Gutierrez credited her colleagues’ “continuous and selfless but unpublished efforts” for the achievements of the Office of the Ombudsman.

She bragged that unknown to many, her office has been voted the most trusted institution in the Philippines for many years.

“That is all your stellar achievement. I stand proud of having worked with you through these years,” she said addressing her colleagues and subordinates. “And while our detractors will always find cause to criticize and charge delay in what we do, it is because we deem it better to accord due process to our own public officials whose lives we affect when we decide on their cases. God bless the Philippines and our people,” she said.

Her spokesperson, lawyer Tomas Syquia said Gutierrez is ready to face any charges that might be hurled against her as private individual.

Palace elated

President Aquino lauded Gutierrez’s decision to resign and spare the country from “a long and divisive” impeachment process.

He said her move would allow his administration, with the support of the public, to “proceed more decisively in making government officials more accountable to their bosses, the Filipino people.”

Aquino said in a televised press conference in Malacañang that the development was unexpected and that he assured her of continued security given the sensitiveness of the post she had vacated.

Aquino had a brief close door meeting with Gutierrez at the Palace.

The President said the impeachment trial of Gutierrez at the Senate would have “distracted our lawmakers from dealing with the many problems we face today.”

Aquino said the search for the new Ombudsman would now begin through the Judicial and Bar Council. He said he asked Executive Secretary Paquito Ochoa Jr. and other legal counsels to check whether the new anti-graft chief would just serve the remaining term of Gutierrez until December 2012.

“As you know, there was a point in time that that was a question with regards to Merceditas Gutierrez herself whether she was just finishing the term. I have to be reminded of exactly what the developments were with them. I’m not prepared to answer that categorically now,” Aquino told reporters.

The President stressed there were no concessions for Gutierrez’s decision to resign.

“I didn’t ask her anything. I just said I thanked her for doing this,” Aquino said.

The President said he could not tell whether Gutierrez would already be off the hook but he noted that prosecuting her would not be one of his top priorities.

“I want to be realistic… During the campaign, I did tell you judicial reforms were one of our plans, isn’t it? And unfortunately, one of the problems of our country is it takes six years to adjudicate the case. I have five years, two months left. I cannot goad everybody that I think we can file charges of all. There has to be a prioritization and even the concept of giving immunity from prosecution to state witnesses mandates that this be given to those who have the least guilt,” Aquino said.

“So the focus has to be on the principles—to deliver the message, secure the convictions, and also to bring the people who have caused crimes against the people to pay for their crimes. So these cannot be lumped altogether, we just really need (to prioritize). I’m not saying Merceditas is least priority but there are people who (will be of) higher priority,” the President said.

Aquino said the kind words that Gutierrez was referring to could be his assurance that that there was nothing personal in this fight.

The President had been hitting Gutierrez and calling on people to support her impeachment, saying she was one those blocking his battle for reforms by making those who committed irregularities pay for their misdeeds.

“I have a commitment and obligation to the people - defend and uphold the Constitution and the oath I subscribed to before I assumed office was that, I repeatedly told this to the people, if there would be no appropriate punishment for those who (commit) crimes against the public, then it could be guaranteed that these things would only be repeated,” Aquino said.

The President said the Office of the Ombudsman would have a fresh start and the level of confidence that the cases to be filed would be resolved accordingly would now be higher.

Aquino also said there would be no more doubts that weak cases would be filed to pave the way for double jeopardy and save the accused.

He said he was grateful that the Senate and the House of Representatives could now focus on the passage of important bills, including the 20 proposed measures that the Aquino administration considered priority to improve the economy and the country.

The President disclosed that Gutierrez asked about her security detail and told her it would not be a problem.

He said those providing Gutierrez security with whom she had confidence in would continue to be assigned to her.

“I just asked for a formal request. I suppose when you’re Ombudsman, you prosecute a lot of powerful people. They probably have done something too that there would be those who would to get even, exact revenge, that would not be right as well,” Aquino said.

Aquino said the administration would now focus on the cases to be filed and “we are confident that the cases” would not be loose or weak.

The President said one of the best examples of weakness on the part of the Ombudsman was the plea bargaining agreement that the special prosecutors entered into with former military comptroller, Carlos Garcia, who was originally charged with plunder but was eventually slapped with lesser offenses after promising to return half of what he was accused of stealing from the country.

He stressed this would “encapsulate” the fight with the Ombudsman as the anti-graft body even opposed the intervention of the Office of the Solicitor General to protect the interest of the public in the Garcia case.

Aquino said he could not understand why the special prosecutors were telling the people that the pieces of evidence were weak and that all they could do was accept the offer of Garcia to return half of his alleged “loot.”

He said the message seemed to be that officials should steal enough so that the prosecutors would be tempted to settle for a split.

“That makes the people pitiful,” Aquino said.

Aquino said he was surprised with Gutierrez’s decision because the preparations for the impeachment were already ongoing after the debates at the House.

He said Deputy Ombudsman Emilio Gonzalez III, who had been dismissed by the Office of the President, even went to the Supreme Court to question the order against him.

“We thought this would take a while…We were waiting (for that kind of defiance) and we really regret the time lost that could be spent on more important things. So when she did that, of course why wouldn’t I be glad that the things we had to think of were lessened,” Aquino said.

“We did not want to have any expectation that this would happen but it did so I am thankful to her that she considered the welfare of the nation,” Aquino said. – With Aurea Calica