Ombudsman Morales threatened with impeachment
MANILA, Philippines— Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales may face an impeachment case for reversing a 2009 ruling by her predecessor dismissing the complaint against 10 Navy officers implicated in the alleged killing of Navy Ensign Philip Andrew Pestaño’s death, the 10 officers’ counsel said Wednesday.
Lawyer Ana Luz Cristal said that the murder complaint issued and signed by Morales was a “gross ignorance of the law” for the number of mistakes or errors it has committed, citing an Ombudsman law that says that “once an administrative case has been dismissed, the dismissal is final, executory and unappealable.”
“There are so many lapses and errors. This is not just error but gross ignorance of the law. There was no murder. It was a clear case of suicide,” Cristal said in a briefing at Camp Crame.
She also questioned the decision of the Office of the Ombudsman to forward the murder complaint to the anti-graft court Sandiganbayan, as the latter had no jurisdiction over accused persons with ranks lower than naval captain at the time of the commission of the offense.
Cristal said the Sandiganbayan had jurisdiction only on Navy captains and those with higher ranks and from full colonels in the Philippine Army. “In our case, the highest official was Captain Ricardo Ordoñez, who was, at the time of the incident, a lieutenant commander [the equivalent of a major in the Army and the Air Force.],” Cristal said, adding that Ordoñez only became a captain when he retired in 2005.
Cristal said that Morales’ complaint stated that Ordoñez was a naval captain at the time of Pestaño’s death, but with a salary grade of only 26, which Sandiganbayan has no jurisdiction over.
“Salary grade 27 and above ang jurisdiction ng Sandiganbayan,” she explained.
Cristal said that after the murder complaint was raffled off, their camp immediately filled a “motion to quash,” but has still not received any response from the Office of the Ombudsman.
The order was dated November 22, 2011, but the information only came out January 12, she said.
Cristal said that criminal cases must be tried in a Regional Trial Court or in a military tribunal, which has jurisdiction over it.
Pestaño, who was 24 then, was found dead in his cabin aboard the BRP Bacolod City on Sept. 27, 1995, before the ship docked at the Philippine Navy headquarters in Manila.
He was found with bullet wounds in his head.
Cristal said that several investigating teams, including the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group, had concluded from their investigations that Pestaño committed suicide, but the family of the victim has insisted that he was murdered.
Along with Ordoñez, others accused were Commander Reynaldo Lopez, Hospital Man 2 Welmenio Aquino, Lieutenant Commander Luidegar Casis, Lieutenant Commander Alfrederick Alba, Machinery Repairman 2 Sandy Miranda, Lieutenant Commander Joselito Colico, Lt. Commander Ruben Roque, Petty Officer 1st Class Carlito Amoroso (retired) and Petty Officer 2nd Class Leonor Igcasan (retired).
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