MEMBERS of the House of Representatives on Sunday assailed the chairman of the lower chamber’s justice committee for accusing the Iglesia ni Cristo (INC) of allegedly lobbying to “kill” the impeachment case against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.

At the same time, legislators described it and the supposed “no-impeachment, no-pork barrel” threat on congressmen as the death knell for the administration’s efforts to impeach the country’s top graft buster.

The “twin strategy,” they claimed, is an admission of defeat on the part of the proadministration Liberal Party and other proimpeachment congressmen, bolstering wide perception that the impeachment case against Gutierrez was weak and that the lower chamber might have a hard time convincing the Senate to convict her.

“Congressman Tupas’s [Liberal Party Rep. Neil Tupas of Iloilo] going public on the alleged ‘calls of INC’ raises doubts on the strength of the basis of impeaching Merci,” said Party-list Rep. Angelo Palmones of Agham.

Palmones said the statement from the chairman of the House Committee on Justice exposed the difficulty and inability of the LP to muster the required 94 votes or one-third of the 283-member chamber to send the impeachment case to Senate for trial.

“The House Liberals seem wary of getting an overwhelming vote. Talking too much might be more detrimental to winning the majority,” he said.

For her part, Lakas-Kampi-CMD Rep. Maria Milagros Magsaysay of Zambales said that if it was true that the INC was lobbying for Gutierrez’s exoneration, she saw nothing wrong with it in the same way that President Aquino ordered his partymates and members of the House majority to impeach the Ombudsman.

“Why will it be wrong if I follow the argument that the Liberal Party used when they stated that they saw nothing wrong with President Aquino directing them to have Ombudsman Gutierrez impeached? Everyone is a stakeholder in this, so they [INC] are entitled to have their voice heard,” said Magsaysay.

Meanwhile, Puwersa ng Masang Pilipino Rep. Toby Tiangco of Navotas said he felt insulted by a text message attributed to LP Rep. Joseph Emilio Abaya of Cavite, chairman of the House appropriations committee, threatening congressmen “zero pork barrel” if they vote against or abstain from voting on the impeachment of Gutierrez.

Abaya has denied sending the message.

Also on Sunday, Magsaysay maintained that the impeachment case against Gutierrez appears “pitifully weak.”

Magsaysay said the House leadership could not blame lawmakers who would vote against the impeachment of Gutierrez because they knew the case had “no legal leg to stand on.”

“There is no concrete evidence against Gutierrez. When I studied the case, I saw no legal and factual basis to impeach her,” the lawmaker from Zambales said.

She also argued that Gutierrez had successfully rebutted the charges in her answers to the two impeachment complaints accusing her of betrayal of public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution.

“Her [Gutierrez] answers demolished the arguments of proimpeachment lawmakers. I saw her replies, she was able to answer the charges point by point. I don’t think the impeachment case will succeed in the Senate. It’s different in the Senate, there must be hard facts to convince the senators,” said Magsaysay. --F. Marasigan