Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez said on Friday she is ready to answer the second impeachment complaint that was filed against her before the House of Representatives.

Speaking through her spokesman, Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus, Gutierrez described the complaint against her as false and that she will submit her answer and rebut the charges against her.

"The Ombudsman cannot prevent her detractors from filing such a complaint. But while it is their right to do so, it is equally the right of the Ombudsman to assail and show to the whole world the fallacy and folly of the same," De Jesus said.

Saying "this is a free country," De Jesus assured that Gutierrez will respond to the complaint at the appropriate time.

Earlier, former Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros, former Scout Rangers chief Danilo Lim, and Felipe and Evelyn Pestaño, the parents of the late Ensign Philip Pestaño, led the filing of the complaint against Gutierrez with the House of Representatives secretary general.

The complainants charged Gutierrez with betraying the public trust and violating the Constitution with her “dismal and unconscionably low” conviction rate; failing to act swiftly on the cases filed against then President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and her allies in connection with the scrapped National Broadband Network (NBN) deal with China’s ZTE Corp.; “inexcusably”

delaying the inquiry into the death of Ensign Pestaño in 1995; failing to investigate Arroyo’s R1,000,000 dinner in New York; upholding the legality of Hontiveros’ arrest in 2006, supposedly in violation of the Revised Penal Code; failing to allow access to public officials’ statements of assets, liabilities and net worth (SALNs); and delaying actions on cases involving official abuse and corruption.