Couple turns to UN, files $60-M case against gov’t

Norwegian national Sven-Erik Berger and his Cebuana fianceé Karen Esdrelon aren’t done yet.

The couple has decided to seek the intervention of the United Nations (UN) in their pursuit to teach the local police a lesson for falsely accusing them months ago of kidnapping 6-year-old Ellah Joy Pique.

Named respondent in their complaint was the “Republic of the Philippines.”

“The (Philippine) government should be held liable because the police is its employee. The employer is liable for the acts of its employees,” said the petitioners’ lawyer Glen Villariza.

Berger and Esdrelon are seeking US$60 million in damages from the Philippine government.

Attached to their complaint is a letter addressed to lawyer Navanethem Pilloy, the high commissioner of the UN’s human rights division.

Villariza said the complaint will be mailed to the UN office in Geneva, Switzerland.

Berger and Esdrelon went to the Cebu Provincial Prosecutors’ Office yesterday to have their complaint and affidavits subscribed and sworn to a state lawyer.

They were accompanied by Villariza and collaborating counsel Gil Tanyag, Esdrelon’s mother and some members of the Norwegian media.

In an interview, Berger reiterated his dismay over the police investigation that tagged the couple as the alleged culprits in the kidnap-slay of Ellah Joy last Feb. 8.

Berger said he filed the complaint so that their ordeal won’t happen to someone else.

“The police should learn from this (incident),” Berger said.

He said emotional wounds caused by the incident hadn’t healed yet and he still had difficulty sleeping.

The couple said they continued to bear the shame of being once tagged as suspects in a crime.

Last July 22, they filed criminal and administrative complaints against Senior Supt. Erson Digal, former director of the Cebu Provincial Police Office, before the Office of the Ombudsman in the Visayas.

Also sued were Bureau of Immigration officer Arthur Omega, Chief Insp. Donalita Baya Sotto of the Police Center for Aviation Security (PCAS) and Rubin Cuizon and Lamberto Hibaya—both are presently assigned at the Police Regional Office in Central Visayas (PRO-7).

Berger and Esdrelon are seeking damage fees from the respondents.

The couple plan to have their names legally changed since their present identities are synonymous to “child murder and kidnapper” when searched on the Internet.

They were about to leave for Hong Kong last February when the police stopped them at the Mactan Cebu International Airport.

Digal filed charges of kidnapping with homicide against the couple but these were later dismissed due to “insufficiency of evidence.”

After the complaint was dropped, police got to identify a second set of suspects.

Bella Ruby Santos and her British partner Ian Charles Griffiths are presently the subjects of a warrant of arrest issued by the court after they were indicted by the prosecutors’ office in relation to the Ellah Joy case.