The House of Representatives (the lower house of Congress, the legislature) has voted to impeach a close ally of the previous president, Gloria Macapagal Arroyo. The government's ombudsman, Merceditas Gutierrez, will stand trial in the Senate (the upper house) on May 9th when Congress returns from a six-week recess for the Easter holiday. She is accused of betrayal of public trust for failing to investigate cases of corruption that are alleged to have occurred during Ms Macapagal Arroyo's presidency. If convicted, the ombudsman would be removed from her post and barred from holding public office again. A conviction would also revive the anti-corruption campaign of the president, Benigno Aquino, which has been stalled since the Supreme Court ruled in early December that a "truth commission" established to investigate Ms Macapagal Arroyo was unconstitutional.

Mr Aquino commands a strong majority in the House of Representatives. It was therefore no surprise that, on March 23rd, the lower house voted overwhelmingly to impeach Ms Gutierrez, by 212 votes to 44 (with four abstentions). But the result of what is likely to be a highly politicised trial in the Senate is much less predictable. Only four of the upper house's 23 members belong to Mr Aquino's Liberal Party. Ms Macapagal Arroyo's party, Lakas-Kabalikat ng Malayang Pilipino-Christian Muslim Democrat (Lakas-Kampi-CMD), also has four members, as does the Nacionalista Party. Of the Senate's remaining 11 members, five are independent, two each belong to Pwersa ng Masang Pilipino (PMP) and the Nationalist People's Coalition (NPC), and one member each from the People's Reform Party (PRP) and Laban ng Demokratikong Pilipino (LDP). A conviction requires the support of a two-thirds majority (16 members).

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Prior to the lower house's decision to impeach Ms Gutierrez, the Senate had already found probable cause to impeach the government's ombudsman in relation to an investigation into high-level corruption in the military. The testimony of two witnesses who appeared before the Senate's Blue Ribbon Committee in January appeared to cast doubt on Ms Gutierrez's claim that there was insufficient evidence to prosecute a former comptroller of the armed forces, Colonel Carlos Garcia, for plunder in relation to some P300m (US$6.7m) in undeclared assets. Ms Gutierrez's role in the investigation of military corruption is not among the alleged offences included in the articles of impeachment, but it is possible that the Senate will take into account the evidence presented to the committee to explain the official ombudsman's low conviction rate. The committee's partial report, which was presented on March 10th, called on Ms Gutierrez to resign before any trial to "save the office of the ombudsman" from scandal. However, Ms Gutierrez has refused to step down.

The articles of impeachment accuse Ms Gutierrez, who was appointed in 2005, of failing to act in relation to six cases of alleged corruption, including claims that Ms Macapagal Arroyo used funds from the Department of Agriculture to finance her election campaign in 2004, and that the authorities demanded bribes to award a broadband Internet contract to a Chinese company, ZTE, in 2007. These cases were to have been examined by the truth commission established by Mr Aquino soon after he became president. The official ombudsman's impeachment trial will provide a means of shedding more light on these cases. If Ms Gutierrez is convicted, the removal of the government's ombudsman from office may pave the way for the vigorous anti-corruption drive that Mr Aquino promised during his election campaign. The interests of the present administration would therefore be well served by a conviction. However, the trial is likely to divert the Senate's attention away from the authorities' legislative programme.