RP may face UN sanctions over dismissal of Pestaño case

MANILA, Philippines – The move of Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez to dismiss the charges against Navy officials allegedly involved in the wrongful death of a young ensign in 1995 may expose the country to sanctions from the United Nations, lawmakers said yesterday.

Akbayan party-list Rep. Arlene Bag-ao said the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) in March this year scored the Philippine government for failing to resolve the 15-year-old case on the death of Ensign Philip Pestaño aboard a Navy vessel.

Bag-ao, who is one of the endorsers of the impeachment complaint against Gutierrez, also said the dismissal would only strengthen the case against the Ombudsman.

“The UNHRC does not easily make decisions condemning other countries and it has already said his (Pestaño) death appears to be a homicide,” Bag-ao told a press conference.

The UNHRC earlier said Philippine authorities have yet to initiate an independent investigation and “no suspect was prosecuted, tried, let alone convicted, and the authors were not compensated for the tragic loss of their son.”

“The State party must accordingly be held to be in breach of its obligation, under article 6, read in conjunction with article 2, paragraph 3, to properly investigate the death of the authors’ son, prosecute the perpetrators, and ensure proper redress,” it said.

The UNHRC issued the statement after the victim’s parents – Felipe and Evelyn Pestaño – sought the intervention of the international body.

The Philippine government is State Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and has ratified the First Optional Protocol to ICCPR, which recognizes HRC’s capacity to receive and hear individual complaints after the exhaustion of domestic remedies.

Bag-ao and Akbayan Rep. Walden Bello said Gutierrez’s move to dismiss the charges was “motivated by revenge” as it came just days after the party-list led the filing of the impeachment complaint against her.

“This is the final straw. The Ombudsman’s decision to dismiss the Pestaño case is shocking as it is appalling,” Bello said.

Bag-ao said the UNHRC report would be used as evidence against Gutierrez.

Gutierrez had earlier insisted that “there are no grounds for me to be impeached” and that she would not give in to pressure for her to resign.

“In the discharge of our official functions we adhere to the rule of law and the Constitution. In deciding cases, we rely solely on the evidence uncovered or presented to our investigators or prosecutors,” she said.

She also belied claims that the Pestaño murder case against seven Navy officers and a policeman was dismissed out of revenge, considering that the parents of the alleged victim are also among the complainants in the impeachment case filed against her before the House of Representatives.

“That is unfair. That is not true,” she told reporters in a press conference yesterday after being told of how she is being accused of retaliating to her detractors.

“We cannot decide on the basis of revenge. We are not getting back at anyone and our decisions do not have anything to do with politics,” Gutierrez stressed. “After all, our decisions, if elevated to the court, will have to be evaluated and the basis of our conclusions will likewise be studied.”

Assistant Ombudsman Jose de Jesus Jr. added that the Joint Resolution dismissing the murder and grave misconduct charges against the Navy officers and other respondents was signed long before the impeachment complaint was filed on May 17, 2010 by Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro. – With Michael Punongbayan