EDITORIAL - Drilon, too, must inhibit

This paper last Wednesday, March 30, called on Senator Kiko Pangilinan to inhibit himself from the impeachment trial of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez after having already concluded that she is guilty.

In a public statement he himself issued on March 2, Pangilinan called on Gutierrez to resign. “For the sake of decency in public office she should just get out or be kicked out,” he said. No vote against Gutierrez can be clearer than that, made even before her trial can begin.

But it is not only just Kiko who must inhibit himself for the sake of — to use his own words — “decency in public office.” Another senator, Franklin Drilon, also made public statements that can be seen as having already prejudged Gutierrez ahead of her trial.

In an opening statement that he read at the resumption of a Senate investigation into massive corruption in the armed forces, Drilon made personal conclusions that pertain to matters that are precisely the subject of the impending impeachment trial in which he is to sit as judge. “Our people have grown tired and weary of Senate investigations that led to nowhere because of the failure of the Ombudsman to file cases against those involved in corruption scandals. However, this time, we will not disappoint the Filipino people,” Drilon said.

The Ombudsman will be tried by the Senate for betrayal of public trust, an example of which is her alleged failure to file cases against officials involved in corruption, a charge that bears an uncanny resemblance to the statement of Drilon.

One does not have to be an expert in law and English to see that one of the allegations against Gutierrez and the statement of Drilon draw basically the same conclusions, thus seriously compromising and undermining whatever impartiality and objectivity Drilon may have during trial.

To be sure, it is possible for the senators to have already formed their own opinions regarding the Ombudsman case even before the trial gets underway. But they ought to be prudent and circumspect with their feelings and their thoughts.

In other words, they should keep their feelings and their thoughts to themselves. But once they come out in the open with categorical and unequivocal conclusions, wherever these conclusions may lean, they owe it to the nation and themselves to inhibit.