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OMBUDSMAN Merceditas Gutierrez on Monday recused from
the various cases which her office is investigating in
relation to the $329-million ZTE-national broadband
network (NBN) mess even as lawyers criticized the Office
of the Ombudsman for apparently sitting on the charges.
Gutierrez announced her recusation prior to the start of
the preliminary investigation on the nine consolidated
cases relating to the aborted broadband contract.
The
investigation was attended by some of the complainants
as well as some of the respondents, including former
Commission on Elections (Comelec) chairman Benjamin
Abalos Sr. and Jose de Venecia III.
“I thank
those who believe that I am credible and impartial. I
also thank those who believe I should be given a chance.
And to those who think otherwise, I understand. I
inhibit,” Gutierrez said.
She said
she was recusing because there should be “no room for
doubt” over the conduct of the investigation and the
eventual resolution of the cases.
Gutierrez said that as a public servant for more than 30
years, she has always maintained her impartiality and
independence, and her decisions have always been based
on evidence, law and jurisprudence. “I never decide
cases based on personalities.”
The
Ombudsman’s action was, however, dismissed by the
Freedom from Debt Coalition (FDC), calling it as “too
late.”
“Though
we welcome Ombudsman Gutierrez’s decision to recuse from
the investigation, the Office of the Ombudsman remains
morally weak—lacking the needed integrity to search for
truth and accountability,” the FDC through its secretary
general, Milo Tanchuling, said in a statement.
“The
people are not gullible. Just because Gutierrez
defaulted from the case, it does not automatically mean
this institution can provide us with genuine justice and
political clarity. Its long history of inaction and of
being a fence-sitter amid rampant graft and corruption
is phenomenal,” Tanchuling said.”
The FDC,
some of whose members picketed outside the office of the
antigraft body while it was conducting the
investigation, said Gutierrez’s recusation was “an act
of hypocrisy to save an irredeemably corrupt and inept
institution,” but will never salvage its reputation as a
“venue of Malacañang’s spin masters to whitewash cases
of anomalies and corruption involving President Arroyo
and her family.”
During
the hearing, overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro
said investigators have decided to consolidate all the
cases in order to resolve all the issues relating to the
aborted ZTE contract once and for all.
He
assured that the panel, which he heads, would resolve
the case with fairness and dispatch.
The
consolidated case was against President Arroyo, her
husband Jose Miguel, Commission on Higher Education
Chairman Romulo Neri, some officials of the Department
of Transportation and Communications headed by Secretary
Leandro Mendoza, Lakas Rep. Jose de Venecia Jr. of
Pangasinan and his son, Joey, Abalos and ZTE officials.
Harry
Roque, lawyer for the group of former Vice President
Teofisto Guingona, questioned why the Ombudsman did not
summon President Arroyo, considering that she was among
those named in the complaint.
He said
the antigraft body should subpoena her in order to be
notified of the charges, adding that the President could
not invoke presidential immunity considering that the
proceedings were in the nature of an investigation, and
not for the initiation of an impeachment complaint
against her.
His
manifestation was only noted by the panel.
Party-List Rep. Risa Hontiveros Baraquel of Akbayan
scored the Ombudsman for not acting on her separate
complaint against Abalos, which she had filed as early
as October 9, 2007.
Through
her lawyer Ibarra Gutierrez III, the lawmaker got more
incensed after finding out that the former Comelec
chairman is still to receive his copy of the complaint
at the end of yesterday’s proceedings.
Gutierrez said the antigraft body may have violated its
own rules mandating that it should act with dispatch by
providing any respondent with a copy of the complaint
within 10 days after its receipt.
Again,
Casimiro “noted” the concern.
Lawyer
Ernesto Francisco was even more critical of the
Ombudsman, even asking whether it can really resolve the
case within a certain time frame.
Francisco, who filed his complaint against the
President’s husband and Abalos in September last year,
scored the body for its failure to secure necessary
documents from the Senate as he had asked five months
ago.
“You had
five months to conduct an honest-to-goodness
fact-finding [investigation] and yet you failed…your
failure to secure the Senate transcript raises doubts
whether you can really investigate and file cases,” he
told the panel.
Francisco said the transcript was very material, because
its absence can mean an easy dismissal of the complaint.
Casimiro
just noted the observation.
The
panel set the continuation of the investigation on March
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