Dumb

That's the title of the Inquirer Editorial on our favorite ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez

ON Sept. 27, on the same day the Office of the Ombudsman resolved to dismiss criminal and administrative liabilities against all those involved in the anomalous Mega Pacific contract, the office also found probable cause to charge Makati Mayor Jejomar Binay and 10 others for “alleged irregular purchases of office partitions and furniture” worth P232 million.

To anyone but the most obtuse, the difference in the outcome of the two cases is easily explained: Binay is a leader of the opposition, and is therefore presumed guilty. Commission on Elections Chair Benjamin Abalos and other persons implicated in the Mega Pacific anomaly are identified with the administration, and—despite evidence of gross abuse of discretion that passes even the Supreme Court’s own stringent standards—must therefore be found innocent.

Gutierrez apparently thinks the public would not notice the difference, or perhaps she has come to believe those Palace operators who, despite what they say about the importance of public opinion, act as though they really don’t care.

(Are we being unfair, in characterizing the Ombudsman’s Sept. 27 resolution on the Mega Pacific case as incorrigibly partisan? Hardly. Yesterday, more administration allies in Congress rushed to Gutierrez’s defense, with some of them even gleefully declaring any attempt to impeach the Ombudsman is doomed. Because she had merit on her side? No. Because, they said, the administration has the numbers. Partisanship, again, trumps the majesty of the law.)

The case against Binay is familiar enough; suffice it to say that the Ombudsman found certain details in the biddings and awards for certain equipment “highly irregular,” resulting in “undue injury to the government.”

That summary, in less than 20 words, applies equally well to the Mega Pacific contract. The Supreme Court, having taken cognizance of the complaint because of the transcendent importance of the matter at hand, found serious irregularities in the bidding for and the awarding of a P1.3-billion contract for automated counting machines. And yet the Ombudsman, finally stirred to action by a dismayed Supreme Court, found no probable cause to hold anyone, no one at all, to account.

We know it requires an enormous act of dumbing-down to forget what one has learned in law school, and decide cases using extra-legal criteria. But does the Ombudsman think everyone else is dumb too?

Read the whole thing.

UPDATE: Nagmukhang tanga si Winnie Monsod for believing in Mercy Gutierrez. She said Mercy's a "disappointment" raw, but there's no reason to be too upset. Let's "move on" na lang to more "positive news" (and she did segue into that nga, LOL.) The Tribune examines and disects the Malacanang spin on the economy.

I myself am disappointed with Winnie. After writing this article last week where she described the ombudsman's decision on the COMELEC automated machines as a "defining moment" and wondered whether Merceditas gutierrez was "worthy of her salt, or merely a sheep (or a “tuta” -- lapdog) in wolf’s clothing," who'll "whitewash" the case, I thought she'd be just as furious (or even more) than Dean Jorge Bocobo or the Inquirer Editorial after the Ombudsman came up with a lutong makaw decision.

Akala ko ba malaking bagay yan, Winnie? Hindi pala.

It seems that all this talk about good government coming from her was just moral posturing. No wonder she's able to shrug off the gloriagate scandal with ease.