By MARK JOSEPH UBALDE
InterAksyon.com
FORMER Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez said she didn’t mind facing her accusers at her impeachment trial next month, but it was her devotion to her family that made her resign from her post on Friday.
Gutierrez, who was impeached by the House of Representatives in February and was set to be tried by the Senate in 10 days, also said she doesn’t feel any hatred for her critics although she would have wanted to defend herself at the trial.
“I wanted to face my accusers whatever personal agony, but the interest of my family, my office and, more importantly, the nation must come before any personal consideration,” Gutierrez said at a press conference in her Quezon City office.
Gutierrez personally handed a one-page resignation letter to President Benigno Aquino III in Malacanang on Friday morning. Aquino, who had repeatedly voiced his distrust of the anti-graft czar, accepted her resignation, which will take effect on May 6.
Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro will take the reins from Guttierez until Aquino selects a new ombudsman.
“By tendering my resignation… I hope we can now focus on problems of the people rather than spending time and effort to remove me from public office,” Gutierrez said.
She also voiced out her regret that she wasn’t able to finish her seven-year term in 2012 but expressed gratitude for having served the Office of the Ombudsman for more than five years.
“To my detractors, I bear no rancor because through this incident I have learned to make myself believe that we all love our country and people no matter how our judgments might differ,” she said, adding that she is “eternally grateful” for her supporters.
Before her resignation, the House of Representatives had already formed a prosecutorial team for the anticipated impeachment trial on May 9.
Several opposition lawmakers, however, bewailed the impeachment proceedings as a purely political event that they said would be used by some politicians to grandstand.
“The country demands a full-time Ombudsman and full-time Congress,” Gutierrez said. “The impeachment proceedings has consumed the time not only of House of Representatives but also the Chief Executive…The last thing the nation need is for the House and the Senate to be embroiled in an impeachment proceeding against a single public official.”
Despite saying she bore no hatred for her detractors, Gutierrez hit back at them for accusing her of sitting on corruption cases during the time of President and now Pampanga Rep. Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.
“We deem it better to accord them due process,” she said.
The former Ombudsman was visibly fighting back the tears as she ended the press conference. She refused to answer any questions from the media.
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Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez resigns