SEVEN months lapsed and PDI correspondent Nestor Burgos is yet to hear from Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierez on his query.

He asked early January this year director for Western Visayas of the Office of the Ombudsman, Virginia Santiago, on the investigation on the infamous “Capitol Siege” of January 17, 2007, the day when a pack of fully armed hoodlums in PNP ranger uniform attacked the provincial seat of power to flush out Gov. Niel D. Tupas, Sr.

The attackers smashed glass panels of the back entrance, manhandled civilians inside the capitol including the children of the governor and members of the press. They barked and trained their guns on them.

Santiago wrote Burgos that his request was already endorsed to Gutierrez, in compliance to the latter’s order that the Ombudsman alone has the authority to release documents and information to the press.

Santiago’s letter reveals that the Ombudsman is exempted from complying with the constitutional mandate for transparency in government.

The assault was uncalled for and unnecessary. There was no terrorist inside the Capitol Building contrary to the yarn spun by higher ups to justify the overkill.

There were only unarmed civilians shielding their governor from being unceremoniously thrown out by order Ombudsman Gutierrez and DILG boss Ronaldo Puno.

The near-bloody incident had a happy ending though: the Appellate Court’s TRO in late afternoon saved Tupas from being booted out. The court later voided Gutierrez’s resolution, her rule making her order of suspension and dismissal unappealable, and her order of execution null and void, in effect, telling her to go back to Grade 1, Section 10 for acting like one.

Two days after the incident, an entourage from the Office of the Ombudsman led by Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro swooped down on Iloilo, inspected the Capitol Building, and held a public hearing next morning to find out whether the PNP indeed used excessive force on one hand and on the other, whether Tupas et al committed sedition. Nothing came out of that costly parade and junket.

It turned out, as we correctly wrote that same day the hearing was held, to be a charade, a circus to cover the obvious notably the dirty hands Ombudsman Gutierrez, a key co-conspirator in the assault. It was her idiotic order that started it all. She convicted Tupas et al sans due process.

November 2006, she laid the groundwork for the downfall of Tupas to please her boss in Malacañang who was angered by the Liberal Party (Senate Franklin Drilon and Tupas included) which bolted the ruling coalition to join the opposition calling for her resignation.

Gutierrez tampered with the rules and procedures of the Ombudsman by declaring her order of dismissal and suspension “immediately executory”. Her order sacking Tupas et al was dated December 4, 2006 but made public only January 17, 2007, the day it was but without Tupas being served their original copies.

Lucky, no blood was spilled. Had there been one, the responsibility must fall on the lap of Gutierrez. The investigation she called in its aftermath was a cover up of her guilt. Yours truly minced no word calling her a moral pygmy and an imbecile.

The Philippine Star in its issued of July 15 confirmed that. In the feature “Ombudsman conviction rate dips; staff demoralized”, writer Aries Rufo noted that Gutierrez tore down what her predecessor Simeon Marcelo painstakingly worked hard for: the credibility and respectability of the Ombudsman.

The Star noted that, while Marcelo pushed for the professionalization of the staff to perform well in the campaign against graft and corruption, Gutierrez in contrast, would rather recognize personnel who are well dressed or who maintain good gardens. The excellent performers are forgotten. She disregarded the pudding for the icing. She would rather award employees, not for their outstanding performance, but for their fashion or their well-kept gardens.

Yes, Nestor Burgos, so long as the Ombudsman is headed by that moral pygmy and imbecile, your letter-query will remain buried in the dead files.

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