Ombudsman COMELEC decision: A Grave Injustice!

[mannyamador]

---

Press Release
The Black & White Movement
4 October 2006
Media Liaison: Leah Navarro 0917.898.1957

*How Much More Abuse Can We Take?*

Another terrible blow was dealt to justice today, this time courtesy of the
Ombudsman. Like a bat-wielding banshee, the office of the Ombudsman
declared that there was no one to blame for the Mega Pacific scam, absolving
the COMELEC and the rumored to have filed for dissolution, eleven day old
(at the time of bidding) company of any wrongdoing.

"This is a travesty of justice! This is like saying a rape was indeed
perpetrated, but there was no rapist", declared Enteng Romano, lead convenor
of the Black & White Movement. "The Ombudsman has committed grave abuse of
discretion, not even bothering to point us in the right direction. Who
shall we hold accountable?"

"This sad act has made the Ombudsman seem to be as dirty as the COMELEC is
perceived. If the COMELEC believes it has been vindicated, it is sadly
mistaken. First, Cha-Cha, now this. We hope our people see just how much
injustice is being done to us", said Leah Navarro, Black & White
spokesperson.

The Supreme Court was clear, and we quote: "Truly, the pith and soul of
democracy -- credible, orderly, and peaceful elections -- have been put in
jeopardy by the illegal and abusive acts of the COMELEC." And what shall
become of these "illegal and abusive acts"? Will these abuses be relegated
to our nation's dimming memory? We pray our nation will not stand idly by.

The Black & White Movement condemns in no uncertain terms this obvious
whitewash. In making this decision, the Ombudsman has proven that the
people no longer have any where to turn for succor or assistance. Along
with a few others, this institution has gone from the heights of probity to
the bowels of infamy. - End

[istoryador]

Sobra na kaayo ang pag abusar sa mga tikasan ug kawatan sa gobyerno. Garapalan kaayo. Way uwaw bisan dagahan ang nag tan-aw. Grabe!

[MR_Kennels]

kawatan kawatan kawatan... puro mo mga kawatan! mga bota mga bota mga bota! walay mata.. gobyerno nga walay pulos!!! puro binayran
wala mo maulaw?!? maypag ma tsugi mo..

[tolstoi]

c PGMA naupd basulun ani?

[mannyamador]

Editorial: BLIND
Inquirer
Published on Page A12 of the October 6, 2006 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
http://opinion.inq7.net/inquireropin...ticle_id=25081

THE Ombudsman’s decision to absolve everyone involved in the anomalous Mega Pacific contract is a terrible blow
against the rule of law. It not only insults our intelligence, it not only offends basic decency, it mocks the very justice
it seeks to serve.

The decision of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez -- and it is all hers, despite the transparent attempt to let her
deputies own it, while she is conveniently out of the country -- brings us to a new low in cynicism; it asks us to believe,
against all evidence and experience, in a crime without criminals, an evil deed without evildoers.

Consider that the findings of the Ombudsman’s Sept. 27 resolution are based almost entirely on hearings held after its
June 30 decision on the Commission on Elections case: as the resolution noted, “this investigating panel conducted
twelve (12) public hearings beginning 13 July 2006 to 23 August 2006.”

Not one of the 10 “material witnesses and resource persons” who attended the Ombudsman’s “further investigation and
clarificatory” hearings, however, can be considered new to the case; they’ve all been heard from before. Their
testimony could not have been new to the investigators of the Ombudsman. But the June 30 resolution, according to the
Ombudsman’s own press release, “contains factual findings that can be used by the House of Representatives to initiate
impeachment proceedings against Comelec Commissioner Resurreccion Borra.” The Sept. 27 resolution -- in the language
of the Ombudsman’s own publicists -- “absolved all respondents involved in the Mega Pacific controversy of all
administrative and criminal liabilities.” What happened in the three months in between?

As a careful reading of the documents involved will show, the Sept. 27 resolution offers no new facts. Indeed, many of
the points raised are mere reiterations of arguments already discussed before, and rejected by, the Supreme Court.
What is new, what “happened” in the last three months, is the Ombudsman’s brazen reinterpretation of those same facts.

Consider the most crucial of the arguments the Supreme Court used to void the P1.3-billion automated counting machines
contract: the ineligibility of the Mega Pacific Consortium to join the bid, much less to win it.

In its Sept. 27 resolution, the office of the Ombudsman recites a familiar litany of so-called proofs for the existence and the
competence of the consortium, including a March 7, 2003 letter, four memorandums of agreement, and a list of almost 200
documents submitted during the bidding, before finally concluding: “On the basis of the foregoing, BAC [the Comelec’s Bids
and Awards Committee] evaluated and ruled that Mega Pacific Consortium had the legal, financial and technical capability
to comply with contract and therefore eligible to bid.”

The problem with this bold assertion is that it had already been rejected by the Supreme Court, in its January 2004 decision.
We repeat: Not only is there nothing new in the Ombudsman’s new resolution that would necessitate a new look at the ACM
case; the facts that the Ombudsman seems to have belatedly found have already been weighed by the high court, and found
wanting.

In fact, much of the majority decision was spent precisely arguing against what the Ombudsman is now blithely repeating as
its finding. The Court, in highly detailed fashion, held that the company that joined the bidding and signed the contract,
Mega Pacific eSolutions Inc., was in fact ineligible, and by the Comelec’s own rules should have been disqualified. It also
held, after studying the March 3, 2003 letter, the bid documents, and the four agreements, that the Mega Pacific Consortium
did not in fact exist.

But what do we have? The Comelec sees its discredited arguments repeated in the Ombudsman’s Sept. 27 resolution, and
calls it vindication. The Ombudsman pretends not to have seen what it says it saw in its June 30 resolution, and calls it
clarification. The Supreme Court, its hand to its nose, points to the source of the stench; the Ombudsman pretends neither to
see nor smell, and calls it compliance. Thus is the rule of law undermined.

We have a trenchant saying in Filipino: He who pretends to sleep is the hardest to wake. That is why Gutierrez cannot hear
the alarm going off. She is only pretending to sleep.

Copyright 2006 Inquirer. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

[istoryador]

OmbudsGirl Office useless! The Filipino people can no longer expect hope for this OmbudsGirl because she is a classmate of Mike Arroyo. The Office of the OmbudsGirl will again be used as a cover up for all the anomalous doings of this administration.

[iloveyou4ever]

Ombudsman ug Supreme Court way mga GAMIT! E abolish na mga way AYO! We are just wasting with these stup$% people from those two mentioned government institution.

[baron]

OmbudsGirl Office useless! The Filipino people can no longer expect hope for this OmbudsGirl because she is a classmate of Mike Arroyo. The Office of the OmbudsGirl will again be used as a cover up for all the anomalous doings of this administration.

Naks...always relate to this administration huh!
We should be able to delineate issues if we really want to come up with a good analysis.

I am also waiting on what will happen with this issue. The Office of the Ombudsman is really in the limelight these days.

Ombudsman ug Supreme Court way mga GAMIT! E abolish na mga way AYO! We are just wasting with these stup$% people from those two mentioned government institution.

If the solution to every problem is to abolish government institutions, that would be so anarchic.

[iloveyou4ever]

If the solution to every problem is to abolish government institutions, that would be so anarchic.

Maybe we should prosecute this people from the ombudsman ang supreme court. It's not cause they are the supreme court, that doesn't mean they are above the law. Mga abusive ang mga bua#$!

[FK]

oh i love how our current institutions are running the show.