LPs mull impeach raps vs Ombudsman for mishandling Perez, Bolante cases

MANILA, Philippines - Senator Manuel Roxas II on Wednesday said the Liberal Party is now studying filing impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez for "failure to do her duty." In an interview with reporters, Roxas said the lawyers of the Liberal Party has been studying the grounds, evidence and process of the complaint since last week and expects to finalize it next week. He said one of the possible grounds of the complaint was Gutierrez's failure to act on the case of former Agriculture undersecretary Jocelyn "Joc-Joc" Bolante. He said the decision of the Sandiganbayan on the case of former Justice Secretary Hernando Perez could also be included. "The filing of the impeachment complaint would be our check and balance on the Ombudsman since we cannot file a case against her," Roxas said. Roxas was apparently referring to the dismissed case against Bolante. The Office of the Ombudsman on Nov 10 dismissed the graft charges filed against Bolante and 10 others by the late community journalist Marlene Esperat several years before. Esperat, a former DA employee, was shot dead inside her house in Tacurong City on March, 2005. Another senator, Sen. Aquilino Pimentel said that time that the Ombudsman’s decision was difficult to understand because there was ample evidence of misuse of the fertilizer fund. He added these anomalies were proven and supported by documentary evidence in the Senate’s investigation on the fund scandal. The evidence includes findings of the Commission on Audit and written and oral testimonies of farmers who were supposed to receive the fertilizer but failed to do so. The Perez case, on the other hand, was filed on December 23, 2002, by then Manila Rep. Mark Jimenez who accused him of extorting $2 million so that the latter would stop forcing Jimenez to execute damaging affidavits against certain individuals in the administration of former President Joseph Estrada. It was filed only in January, 2007 and dismissed on Nov 24, 2008 by the anti-graft court in a 10-page resolution penned by Associate Justice Edilberto Sandoval, chairman of the Second Division. In it, the court held that the Ombudsman lost its authority to file the case due to a violation of the defendants’ constitutional right to speedy resolution of their case.- Amita Legaspi, GMANews.TV