The 2nd Impeachment

The House committee on justice declared that the impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Merceditas Guttierrez is sufficient in form.

And the critics of the Tanodbayan , whose close ties with the Palace has resulted in a series of questionable decisions, are cautious.

During the voting, there was a debate over the number of actual voting members needed to form a quorum. In the end, the voting did take place and surprisingly came out favoring the impeachment complaint against Guttierrez.

It was sheer providence that the committee ruled in favor of the impeachment complaint lodged by, among others, former Senate president Jovito Salonga, who warned the legislators present not to bungle the case against Guttierrez who still has allies in Congress to stifle any impeachment attempt against her.

To appreciate this development, one has to look at the last time there was an attempt to impeach a sitting Ombudsman.

With strong backing from legislators, some of whom probably had skeletons to hide in their closets, former Ombudsman Aniano Desierto survived an impeachment attempt against him long before President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo pulled off those exits against a series of impeachment attempts against her following the “Hello Garci” scandal.

In Guttierez’s case, it was the misfortune of the lawmakers, a lot of whom went to Las Vegas to watch Manny Pacquiao finish off Ricky Hatton in two quick rounds, that there is this ongoing swine flu menace that may have delayed their arrival for the voting on Guttierrez’s impeachment complaint.

In any case, it was no surprise that most of those who voted were partylist lawmakers who supported the impeachment complaint from the beginning.

With this little development, Salonga remains guarded that the congressmen would deliberately bungle the case to allow Guttierez to escape impeachment like her patrons in the Palace.

But what was important was that something did work and that for once in a long time, Congress managed to vote independently of any pressure from the Palace or lobby groups on a complaint against a very powerful and influential official, one whose accountability to the public had been severely compromised in light of the recent rulings that favored perceived cronies of the powers that be.

How this would play out is still a long way off. But for once, Salonga and other civil society groups did not have to head off to the Supreme Court, which has seen its share of appointees of justices perceived to be identified with the administration, to plead their case against the Ombudsman.

Which means that every once in a while, there is a little justice in this world after all.