Ombudsman firm: ‘I will not resign’

MANILA, Philippines – “I will not resign.”

These were Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez’s fighting words amid a recent call in the Senate to “spare the country and resign” and being on the brink of impeachment by the House of Representatives.

“I will not resign because there is no law that says I should even if I have a pending case,” Gutierrez said on radio Thursday.

She said she was willing to take her case “all the way up to the Senate”, where
Senator Teofisto Guingona III, chairman of the blue ribbon committee, made the appeal in a press conference earlier in the day.

In the same media briefing, Guingona declared that 14 senators, eight with reservations, signed a partial <a href=” https://newsinfo.inquirer.net/breakingnews/nation/view/20110310-324547/Senate-committee-recommends-Ombudsman-impeachment”> report</a> recommending Gutierrez’s impeachment.

He said he would send the report to the House for inclusion in the articles of impeachment that would be transmitted to the Senate, which would transformed into a special court for Gutierrez’s trial.

Gutierrez seemed to be unfazed by the moves to remove her from office, saying in Filipino that she was still “hopeful” that the lawmakers in the House plenary would not make the same decision arrived at by the committee on justice, which ruled that there was probable cause to impeach the Ombudsman for betrayal of public trust.

At the same time, Gutierrez said that “if they think they have a strong case against me, why are they calling for my resignation?”

Reacting to Guingona’s call for her to “spare the country”, Gutierrez said, “But how about my innocence, my right to due process?”