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What about substantial justice? C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S Jonathan De la Cruz 03/04/2011

Friday, March 4, 2011

What about substantial justice?

C.R.O.S.S.R.O.A.D.S
Jonathan De la Cruz
03/04/2011
It is unfortunate that the House committee on justice has decided to proceed with the impeachment hearings against Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez immediately after the Supreme Court (SC) dismissed her petition to stop the process on the ground that such would violate her constitutional right against the filing of more than one impeachment complaint against an impeachable official within a period of one year. This, despite the fact that, as emphasized by the experts, she still had 15 days to file, as she did file, a motion for reconsideration.

This “rush to judgment,” as the committee’s action has been described even by those who have no love lost for Gutierrez, can only further muddle and complicate the issues on hand.

For it strikes at the very heart not only of the impeachment process itself and the “separation of powers” among the co-equal branches of government but the matter of “due and demandable rights” afforded each and every citizen under the Constitution. Substantial justice not only requires but presupposes that such rights are adhered to at all times. Thus, if the process is short circuited or arbitrarily or whimsically adhered then a crisis can set in..... MORE

SourceThe Daily Tribune

URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20110304com5.html

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