DID INCLUSION of a United Nations finding on violation of human rights, in the new impeachment case, blindside Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez?

For the first time, an impeachment charge goes beyond domestic issues like a 12-percent conviction rate, or acting as bouncer for former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo and clan in scandals from the ZTE broadband scheme to election computers.

The rap sheet stitches in a March 23 UN Commission on Human Rights (UNCHR) finding: that the Ombudsman refrigerated the case on Navy Ensign Philip Andrew Pestaño?s murder aboard the BRP Bacolod City.

The Ombudsman recognized, in August 2007, the need to further investigate the Pestaño murder. ?None ever took place,? the UN noted. Gutierrez refused to even meet Pestaño?s parents?Felipe and Evelyn.

?It?s a waste of time to investigate further,? said Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, equally criticized for taking a dive on key cases.

Not so, said the UNCHR. ?The State party is bound to conduct an investigation and ensure that there is no impunity?. The Human Rights Commission ? is of the view that the Philippines fractured the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.?

Government should report within 180 days from receipt of the finding in early April ?what enforceable remedies and solutions were taken.? Suddenly, four police probers appeared at the home of Pestaño?s parents, asking belated questions.

Felipe and Evelyn Pestaño are principal complainants in the impeachment. Former Akbayan party-list Rep. Risa Hontiveros-Baraquel and Brig. Gen. Danilo Lim are co-complainants.

Pestaño went through Ateneo and Philippine Military Academy (Class 1993) with honors. He was 23 years old when found shot in BRP Bacolod City. Within 24 hours, the Navy ruled suicide, sans investigation.

The NBI and the military ombudsman waffled. But Pestaño?s classmates wrote then Senate President (and former Supreme Court chief justice) Marcelo Fernan, documenting how Pestaño blew the whistle on Navy ships hijacked for smuggling.

Senate Report No. 800 dismissed the Navy and NBI whitewash. He was bludgeoned, then shot to death while BRP Bacolod City meandered on a bizarre hour-and-a-half trip in Manila Bay. Normally, the trip from Cavite to Roxas Boulevard pier takes 25 minutes. Logbook entries disappeared.

As cargomaster, Pestaño refused to authorize the loading of 14,000 board feet of illegal hardwood logs in Tawi-Tawi. ?Part of the cargo was a gift of the governor (Gerry Matba) to the flag officer in command: Admiral Pio Carranza.?

?Orders from above? overruled Pestaño. The Department of Environment and Natural Resources certified the logs were inspected in Zamboanga on Sept 25. But the boat, that day, had already docked in Cavite. The logs promptly vanished. Nonetheless, spurious clearances appeared.

Pestaño bucked the peddling of high-powered weapons, bunker fuel and loading of shabu. ?We?ve received phone calls,? Pestaño?s parents warned. ?They?ll kill you.? The ensign?s reply: ?Kawawa ang bayan (Pity the country),? recalls Fr. James Reuter, SJ.

?The absence of blood spatters, bone fragments or other human tissues is physical evidence more eloquent than a hundred witnesses,? the Senate report said. Pestaño was bludgeoned, then shot to death somewhere else in the vessel.

It is impossible for a person, who sustained a fatal head injury, to walk from some other place to his room, lie on his bed and drop dead. ?The attempt to make it appear Pestaño killed himself, inside his stateroom, was elaborate,? the Fernan report said. ?No one person could have accomplished it by himself.?

Then who did? Lt. (jg) Carlito Amoroso (PMA Class ?94)? He moonlighted as close-in security for Admiral Carranza. ?Strong evidence linked him to the crime as the possible gunman,? then senator-now-Manila Mayor Fred Lim declared in a privilege speech. Amoroso was not a crew member of BRP Bacolod City.

Amoroso became scarce since then. The Navy wasn?t keen on locating him. ?To date, as like the others, (Amoroso) got off scot-free,? Lim fumed. Was there an intelligence officer who also boarded in Cavite?

Ensign Joselito Colico admitted wiping fingerprints off the .45 caliber pistol. This tampered with evidence, Lim protested. Colico ?was not even charged administratively.?

Boat commanders Capt. Ricardo Ordoñez and executive officer Lt. Ruben Roque left the Navy. PO2 Zosimo Villanueva tipped Pestaño on shabu stashed in more than 20 sacks of rice aboard the ship, Lim revealed. A week after Pestaño?s murder, Villanueva was ?allegedly washed away in a sea mishap.?

Ensign Alvin Parone was scheduled to talk to Pestaño?s parents. ?He was also a victim of an unsolved murder,? Lim said. The vessel?s radio operator PO3 Fidel Tagaytay vanished when he was summoned to testify.

?Alam ko po marami siyang alam kasi siya ang duty operator (I know he knew a lot because he was the duty operator),? his wife Leonila wrote to then Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz.

Wife Leonila?s efforts to trace her husband?s whereabouts is brushed off by the bland claim that Tagaytay is ?absent without leave.? Is the radio operator then a desaparecido?

?The Pestaño case presents a very strong case against the Ombudsman because it is non-political,? says Enrique Angeles who helped the Pestaños shepherd their complaint through the UNCHR. ?And the victim is a Philippine Navy officer?not a leftist?for a change.?

An international document, the UN report buttresses the credibility of the indictment against the government as state party?and the Ombudsman which ?fumbled the ball for the Philippines.?

* * *

Email: juanlmercado@gmail.com