Pala-isip

Repost from fullman.com.ph While some were still drowning, while some families were still stuck on roofs, while those who were not badly hit were sacrificing their lives to save those who need rescuing and while others were volunteering their energy to provide relief to those who lost almost everything, some of our honorable congressmen and women were busy saving Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, protector of Big Boss Mike Arroyo. Today, the impeachment complaint against the Ombudsman was dismissed by the House justice committee with a vote of ‘absolute majority’. It was a surreal hearing. After being delayed for several weeks because of lack of quorum, the House committee was suddenly able to force its members to attend the hearing, disaster and all. SHAME!!!!!

Anybody read this article in the Philippine Daily Inquirer? Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez issued a memorandum circular that would make it difficult for people to get copies of the Statement of Assets and Liabilities and Net Worth of government officials. This is the latest move by the Arroyo government to hamper access to information of public concern. Wow...just wow. So instead of investigating why Mikey Arroyo has an inflated net worth. The Ombudsman instead issues a memorandum so that nobody can look into his SALN anymore. That way, there's nothing to investigate. No evidence, no investigation, no expose. Nothing for the media or anyone to throw at Mikey to make a fool of himself anymore. Makes sense. If anybody still doubts that Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez is working for the benefit of the Arroyo family. This confirms it. It's unconstitutional to issue this kind of memorandum. Unconstitutional because the Constitution recognizes “the right of the people to informati...

Read this report from the Philippine Daily Inquirer. It says that in the mid-year report, the Ombudsman 94 of the 194 person whose cases was resolved were acquitted. The cases filed against 44 respondents were dismissed without going to trial and 13 were dismissed during trial. The Office of the Ombudsman also withdrew 11 cases this year. Responding to these reports, the Office of the Ombudsman reported that in 2008 a high of 73 percent conviction rate claiming that 406 resulted in convictions while only 147 resulted in acquittals. But it turns out, according to the Philippine Daily Inquirer, that 221 of the 406 convictions in 2008 actually involved just one person, a mayor in Quezon province found guilty of ursurpation of official functions of the DENR for issuing permits to transport forest products. Not a very effective prosecutors are they? They very good at prosecuting small time cases from far away provinces, but none of the big graft and corruption case are ever successful in...