Counsel cries foul on impeachment proceeding

MANILA, Philippines – The legal counsel of Ombudsman Merceditas N. Gutierrez slammed the House Justice Committee, alleging that the probe body violated his client’s Constitutional right to due process.

In a statement sent to The Star, lawyer Butch Diaz said the impeachment process is being carried out with undue haste.

“The Committee on Justice is trivializing and railroading the impeachment proceedings against Ombudsman Gutierrez in violation of her constitutional right to due process of law and its own rules,” he stressed.

“When a simple and reasonable request to defer the proceedings until the Supreme Court shall have resolved our Motion for Reconsideration is so cavalierly denied and successive hearings are set as if the impeachment is the only issue of national importance that merits their undivided attention, can there still be doubt that the committee is proceeding with indecent haste,” Diaz said.

He said the manner by which congressmen voted separately for two separate impeachment complaints is proof that the rule that only one impeachment proceeding can be initiated against an impeachable official in a year is being violated.

“That is another telling proof that there are two proceedings and not one as required by the Constitution,” he told The Star.

Gutierrez herself and other officials of the Office of the Ombudsman refused to comment on what happened at the House of Representatives wherein members of the justice committee voted that there is sufficient ground to proceed with the two impeachment cases against Gutierrez.

The Ombudsman, despite being given a deadline to respond to the charges against her, did not file a reply and instead went to the Supreme Court on Monday to file a motion for reconsideration, seeking for a reversal on the High Tribunal’s decision allowing Congress to proceed with the impeachment process.

Gutierrez maintains that she has the right to appeal the ruling 15 days from receipt of the same which means that the Supreme Court’s decision junking her petition questioning why two separate impeachment cases are being heard by the House Justice Committee when the Constitution only allows one, is not yet final. (report from Michael Punongbayan, Philstar.com)