PALACE WANTS LIVE COVERAGE OF OMBUDSMAN GUTIERREZ IMPEACH TRIAL
[Photo is loading... The Batasang Pambansa Complex, the home of the House of Representatives that impeached Gutierrez on March 22, 2011. ]
MANILA, MARCH 24, 2011 (STAR) Malacañang would like greater media coverage of the impeachment trial of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez.
"Given the amount of public interest, maybe it's best to have it broadcast," deputy presidential spokesperson Abigail Valte said.
The camp of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez does not mind the Senate leadership's gag order on her impeachment trial but is worried that the public might not get the chance to understand the proceedings.
"The gag order to be enforced during the impeachment trial is a sound rule," Gutierrez's spokesman and lawyer Salvador Panelo told The STAR yesterday.
Earlier, Senate Majority Leader Vicente Sotto III said those involved in the trial, including senators and prosecutors, should not grant interviews to the media or even post comments or statements in social networking sites.
Panelo agreed with some constitutionalists' view that such policy would deprive the people of their right to information regarding the impeachment proceeding.
Panelo explained that the people deserve "enlightenment and elucidation from the parties involved," adding that "such prior restraint may face constitutional challenge."
Gutierrez, in a press conference Tuesday hours after the House of Representatives voted to impeach her, said the public's perception of things depends on what they see, hear, and understand.
Gutierrez has complained of not getting enough chance to air her side in the media.
'Tsunamied'
Panelo also slammed what he described as a "precipitate and coercive manner by which the administration congressional coalition allies steamrolled the impeachment vote."
"The congressmen were 'tsunamied' into voting in favor of the impeachment under pain of being shut out in the allocation of funds geared for congressional districts," Panelo claimed.
"We are confident that the Senate trial will be clothed with a judicious milieu where the rule of law will prevail," he said.
"The lawyers of Ombudsman Gutierrez are ready to face the House prosecution panel every step of the way to establish the baselessness of the articles of impeachment as well as the innocence of the Ombudsman," he stressed.
House Minority Leader and Albay Rep. Edcel Lagman, meanwhile, said the articles of impeachment were weak and would not stand a chance in the Senate.
He said he expected the House prosecution panel to perform dismally in the Senate trial as it did during the plenary debates on Gutierrez's impeachment.
"As was apparent in our interpellation of the sponsors of House Resolution 1089, the six articles of impeachment are either half-baked, baseless, or totally trumped up. Certainly, these articles do not deserve the imprimatur of a Congress," Zambales Rep. Milagros Magsaysay said.
"We hope the Senate acting as the impeachment court will act with judicious impartiality and courageous independence from the pressures of Malacañang," she added.
[PHOTO: THE COMPLAINTS DOCUMENTS]
Lagman said the sponsors of the complaints against Gutierrez admitted they dropped the offense of culpable violation from the charges "because it was difficult to prove, and merely relied on the catch-all 'betrayal of public trust' unmindful that such betrayal must be of the same severity as the other specific impeachable offenses."
"The articles of impeachment are weak and full of loopholes. I think the senators would have a similar assessment," Lagman told a news conference.
Lagman and Magsaysay said the poor defense put up by the sponsors of the resolution was "a preview of what might happen in the Senate."
"I suggest that they brush up and study the case more. The interpellation (in the House of Representatives) was a dry run for the Senate," Lagman said.
He said if not for the sheer numbers mustered by the majority bloc, the resolution would have been defeated if "reason and superiority in argument prevailed."
"Like in statutes or laws subsequently declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court which had been enacted by vast majorities, the great numbers supporting the impeachment do not indicate the verity of the complaints," Lagman said.
"The frenzy of a mob is not the standard in holding the lynched victim probably culpable," he said.
He also claimed that administration propaganda had "erroneously but successfully" portrayed her as a "coddler of corruption."
"The Ombudsman was denied due process as she was barred from adducing her evidence or even submitting a memorandum after she was liberated to present without legal constraints the full advocacy of her defense consequent to the dismissal of her motion for reconsideration by the Supreme Court," he said.
Iloilo Rep. Niel Tupas Jr., chairman of the House justice committee and head of the House prosecution panel, said he expects the trial in the Senate to last from two to six months. – Michael Punongbayan, Paolo Romero
Impeachment of Merceditas Gutierrez From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
[PHOTO COURTESY OF MANILA BULLETIN - MERCI REACTS: Embattled Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez speaks at a press conference in her office in Quezon City hours after she was impeached by the House of Representatives in a 212-47 vote with four abstentions, in a proceeding that lasted almost eight hours. "My conscience is clear. I have done nothing wrong as I have done my job as the country's ombudsman to the best of my knowledge and capability and I will continue to do so with all those who continue to support my quest for truth and justice," she said.]
There is an ongoing impeachment proceeding against the Philippine Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez on charges of the office's underperformance and failure to act on several cases during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. The first impeachment complaint against her was filed in 2009, but was dismissed later in that year in a House of Representatives dominated by Arroyo's Lakas Kampi CMD party.
In 2010, with the election of Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party as president and the concurrent elections to the House of Representatives and the subsequent political realignment, two impeachment cases against her were voted as sufficient in form, substance and grounds, and the House of Representatives Committee on Justice had found probable cause on alleged betrayal of public trust as based on the two complaints.
On March 22, 2011, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Gutierrez, sending the committee report as the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate which will act as an impeachment court. A vote of at least two-thirds (16) of all senators (24) is required to convict Gutierrez and remove her from office.
----------------------------------------------------------
Chief News Editor: Sol Jose Vanzi
© Copyright, 2011 by PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE
All rights reserved
----------------------------------------------------------
PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE [PHNO] WEBSITE
[Non-text portions of this message have been removed]
Follow us on Twitter: http://twitter.com/phnotweet
This is the PHILIPPINE HEADLINE NEWS ONLINE (PHNO) Mailing List.
To stop receiving our news items, please send a blank e-mail addressed to: phno-unsubscribe@yahoogroups.com
Please visit our homepage at: http://www.newsflash.org/
(c) Copyright 2009. All rights reserved.
-------------------------------------------------------------
