Impeachment of Merceditas Gutierrez
| Impeachment of Merceditas Gutierrez | |
|---|---|
The Ombudsman building | |
| Accused | Merceditas Gutierrez, Ombudsman of the Philippines |
| Proponents | Former Senate President Jovito Salonga, Bagong Alyansang Makabayan and 31 civil society leaders |
| Date | 22 March – 29 April 2011 |
| Outcome |
|
| Charges |
|
| Impeachment vote by the House of Representatives (March 22, 2011) | |
| Votes in favor | 212 / 284 (75%) |
| Votes against | 46 / 284 (16%) |
| Not voting | 4 / 284 (1%) |
| Result | Impeachment successful |
The Philippine Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez was impeached by the House of Representatives on charges of the office's alleged underperformance and failure to act on several cases during the presidency of Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. She became the second official after President Joseph Estrada in 2000 to be impeached.
While the first impeachment complaint against her was filed in 2009, it was dismissed later in that year in a 14th Congress dominated by Arroyo's Lakas Kampi CMD party. In 2010, with the election of Benigno Aquino III of the Liberal Party as president and the concurrent elections to the House of Representatives and the subsequent political realignment, two impeachment cases against her were voted as sufficient in form, substance and grounds, and the House of Representatives Committee on Justice had found probable cause on alleged betrayal of public trust as based on the two complaints.
On March 22, 2011, the House of Representatives voted to impeach Gutierrez, sending the committee report as the Articles of Impeachment to the Senate, which would have acted as an impeachment court. A vote of at least two-thirds (16) of all senators (24) was required to convict Gutierrez and remove her from office. Gutierrez, however, resigned on April 29, 2011, thereby canceling the impeachment trial in the Senate.