Monalisa lied!

By Peter G. Jimenea

Hole of Justice

In one of the fora called-for by members of the Catholic Bishop Conference of the Philippines (CBCP), Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez claimed there was no probable cause for the House Committee on Justice to impeach her.

She failed to realize that sleeping on cases filed at her office is a betrayal of public trust and a culpable violation of the Constitution. It is her sleeping on those cases why Atty. Romeo Gerochi had been calling her office - “The Office of Monalisa”.

It's true. In a song inspired by the legendary picture of Monalisa, one will come across the line that says; “Many dreams have been brought to your doorstep, they just lie there and they die there.” The same fate has happened to the many cases at her office.

Take the case of Jocelyn “Jocjoc” Bolante, an ally of the Holy ehe...este First family. He is linked to the P728M fertilizer scam. Then the unaccounted P2 billion for the automation of the Comelec of Ben Abalos, also an ally of Pres. Gloria M. Arroyo.

Next is the China ZTE deal with the Arroyo administration followed by the $2B extortion case of former Sen. Nani Perez filed by Mark Jimenez and many more. It seemed that those cases against the undesirable underlings of the administration has slowly disappeared in the course of time.

Worse, the plea bargain agreement entered into by the Ombudsman Office with Gen. Carlos Garcia who is facing plunder charges. It's tainted with corruption and this is what got us so badly disillusioned.

Ombudsman Monalisa ehe... este Gutierrez should know that to conceal a fraud is fraud.In her desire to please her benefactor and protect their comrades, she risked her integrity. Unfortunately. she is now left alone in the mess they're in.

But she refused to be intimidated by impeachment threat when the Supreme Court had already fixed the glitches in the missing point of order. Likewise, to heed to the call of the Senate and the Palace to resign and spare this country from the agony of impeachment.

Instead, she boldly challenge them to go on with their threat of impeachment. Oddly enough, she has that rare guts to defy the favorable option offered by two branches of the government. Maybe she realized it's a mere pittance only.

Now let's look back at this P132M for 413 units of Low-Cost Housing Project of the Iloilo City government for its employees. It started in 2001, ended in 2009 without even a unit completely built. This is corruption of the highest order!

Iloilo City Councilors Atty. Raul Gonzalez, Jr. and Atty. Antonio Pesina called for an immediate investigation of this housing scam. Dir. Virginia Palanca Santiago of the Office of the Ombudsman conducted the probe.

Eventually, Dir. Santiago has confirmed there was a big waste of taxpayers money going to the wrong pockets. So before election in 2004, SP Pesina filed a case against Mayor Trenas, the contractor and some city officials linked to the messy project.

Another corruption case was also filed by Atty. Romeo Gerochi against city officials involved in the housing scam. Yet, unafraid, Mayor Trenas continues paying the bill of the contractor in millions. Despite the slippage of the project, their will was done!

But that is not only what we are looking for. An employee of the Ombudsman at the head office in Quezon City said that Ombudsman Monalisa... ehe, este Ombudsman Gutierrez personally took the housing scam case folder containing the charge-sheets hinting to review it inside her office.

Now we are already 2011. The then mayor is also a congressman now. What we heard lately is that Ombudsman Gutierrez and Cong. Trenas were classmates at the Ateneo Law School few years ago, that's all. No wonder why she slept on his cases for over seven years.

Surprisingly, she boldly say there's no probable cause for the House Committee on Justice to impeach her. My god, she is already in the pot but jumps into the fire. The case of that Iloilo City government prostituted project alone is enough evidence by which I shall judge her!</span></span>

Her sleeping on cases at her office is betrayal of public trust, a deliberate stepping over the line of pardonable behavior and a culpable violation of the Constitution. The tragedy is when those cases become a scroll to form the basis of her blasphemy!