Editorial

The best defense

Once again, Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez used a microphone and a captive audience to get her message across. And once again, she failed.

In a Rotary Club meeting this week, the chief graft buster denied she was sitting on various high-profile corruption cases lodged in her office. The denial came after Senator Francis Escudero said her term would actually be ending this year since she was only serving the unexpired term of her predecessor, Simeon Marcelo.

Gutierrez said reports of her team conducting probes into the fertilizer fund scam, the euro generals mess, the Mega Pacific contract and the World Bank’s findings of collusion between contractors and officials for bank-funded public works projects, among others, would be out soon. Still, she did not commit specific dates for the resolution of the cases.

Gutierrez added that her office had been working quietly because it was not allowed to disclose facts relating to pending cases. Hence, there was no truth to allegations that she was not performing her job that might include meting out adverse verdicts to the President, the First Gentleman, or their close associates.

Several weeks ago, Gutierrez went on a personal attack on her critics—which included former Senate President Jovito Salonga and other erstwhile members of the Arroyo Cabinet—who had filed an impeachment complaint against her. The Ombudsman’s response was seen as unbecoming; it did not help clear her name at all.

Actually, nothing else is going to help Gutierrez convince her critics and the rest of us that she is serious about her job and that she is aware of the crucial role she plays in the nation’s struggle against the deeply embedded claws of corruption.

Nothing else but action, that is. The Ombudsman should realize all the talk amounts to nothing unless decisions on major cases are promulgated in the next few days.

Until then, nobody hears her.