The 2nd Impeachment

MANILA, Philippines—“You have to bite the bullet.”

You have to be ready to accept defeat, for “in the end, it is still a numbers game,” Bacolod Rep. Monico Puentevella Tuesday reminded proponents of the impeachment complaint against Ombudsman Ma. Merceditas Gutierrez.

Puentevella made the comments at the House justice committee hearing on the impeachment complaint filed against Gutierrez, after noting a lack of votes to oust the Ombudsman.

Members of civil society groups and former Senate President Jovito Salonga accused Gutierrez of betrayal of the public trust and culpable violation of the Constitution for purportedly failing to prosecute the people behind cases like the Mega-Pacific poll computerization scandal, the World Bank road projects anomaly, and the fertilizer fund scam.

Puentevella sought to dispense with a panel discussion of the complaint and go directly to a vote on its sufficiency of substance.

The justice committee two weeks ago overwhelmingly voted the complaint sufficient in form.

“I think we made our decisions already when we entered the hall... Mr. Chairman, whatever is said and done, whatever legalities, with all due respect to our colleagues who have endorsed this, you have to bite the bullet,” Puentevella said.

He said that even if the pro-impeachment group lost the vote on sufficiency of substance, this would still have to be upheld by the plenary [entire House] after debates.

“If you want to have your (media) mileage, it will be done in the plenary. Here, you just have to bite the bullet like me,” he told panel members.

He recalled that he, too, had to “bite the bullet” when the impeachment complaint he endorsed in 2002 against then Election Commissioner Luzviminda Tancangco did not prosper.

“In the case of Luzviminda Tancangco, I knew we had all the evidence, very strong, but in the end, this is still a numbers game,” Puentevella said. With Rose Ann Samorin