Dick, Chiz want Mercy’s head

BY JP LOPEZ


SENATORS Richard Gordon and Francis Escudero yesterday renewed their call for Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to resign for dismissing the complaint against President Arroyo last August on the mere pretext of presidential immunity from suit in relation with the botched $329-million broadband deal with China’s ZTE Corporation.

"The Ombudsman should investigate and make findings for transmittal to the House of Representatives, if an impeachment would have been warranted, rather than a blanket statement of exculpation because of supposed immunity," Gordon, chair of the Senate Blue Ribbon committee, said.

"I have said this before and I will say it again, the Ombudsman should resign. At the very least she should have inhibited herself from the investigation. She could even be disbarred for ignorance of the law, because it is only the Congress that can declare if somebody can be impeached," Gordon said.

Escudero dared Gutierrez to act without delay on the Blue Ribbon committee’s recommendations to indict President Arroyo, her spouse, Mike and 11 others including whistleblowers Joey de Venecia and Rodolfo Lozada Jr. for conspiring to defraud the government.

"This is an opportune time for Ombudsman Gutierrez to show where her loyalty lies. Otherwise the next administration should make every effort to remove her from office for dereliction of duty," he said.

Sen. Pia Cayetano expressed "serious doubts" on the claim of Malacañang that President Arroyo immediately ordered Interior Secretary Ronaldo Puno to look into the allegations of then Planning Secretary Romulo Neri that former Comelec chair Benjamin Abalos tried to bribe him with a substantial amount if he would endorse the project.

Malacañang officials claimed that President had ordered a "discreet" investigation on the bribery issue as early as September 2007.

However, at the Sept. 26, 2007 Senate hearing, then Blue Ribbon chair Alan Peter Cayetano asked all the principal players whether they had been the subject of Malacañang’s "discreet" investigation.

Neri and Abalos said that none of them were aware of the "discreet investigation."

President Arroyo chided critics for linking her to the NBN-ZTE project which she said only hampers the development and the progress of the country.

"There are a lot of unsubstantiated allegations and innuendoes mixed up with the facts of the case. This is part of our immature political system, it is part of our immature institutions. And this immaturity hurts the growth of the nation," she said at the 36th Top Level Management Conference of the Kapisanan ng mga Broadcaster sa Pilipinas at the Taal Vista Hotel in Tagaytay.

She cited the NBN project as part of efforts to build up the telecommunication and digital infrastructures in the country which is included in her 10-point agenda. – With Jocelyn Montemayor


Source: http://www.malaya.com.ph/11132009/news2.html