New ombudsman can undo Garcia plea bargain

Monday, 02 May 2011 11:30 Angeli Sabillo

Now that Merceditas Gutierrez has resigned from her post as Ombudsman and as long as the Sandiganbayan has not made a ruling on former military comptroller Carlos Garcia’s plunder case plea bargain, the next Ombudsman may nullify, withdraw the plea bargain, and restore the original charge of plunder.

This is according to former Special Prosecutor Dennis Villa-Ignacio who has been vocal about the plea bargain.

The Office of the Solicitor General said the deal was virtually approved in light of the guilty plea, but the Sandiganbayan’s second division said it has not yet been approved.

He also said that it would be better if President Benigno Aquino III appoints two Ombudsmans, one to serve Gutierrez’s term and another for the next term – to save the replacement from controversy – such as what happened with Gutierrez who replaced Ombudsman Simeon Marcelo whose term was set to end in 2009.

Gutierrez then answered that she was appointed in 2005 and automatically got a seven-year term.

Gutierrez announced her resignation, effective May 6, last Friday, 10 days before the impeachment trial in Senate. Nevertheless, some of the prosecutors and government officials welcomed the move, saying it was an admission of guilt and that Congress would now be able to focus on other things. Some legislators are still planning to press administrative and maybe criminal charges against her. Progressive party-list solons had also expressed hope that the government could focus on the investigation of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo’s cases.

Gutierrez signed Garcia’s plea bargain on 25 February 2010, allowing him to plead guilty to direct bribery and facilitating money laundering. He was granted bail after agreeing to turn over a lesser amount of assets stolen from the government.

The Office of the Ombudsman filed a total of 1,195 cases against government officials from December 2005 to 2009. Only 223 of these resulted in convictions, according to Inquirer.net.

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