Our judicial system stinks

The Court of Appeals has upheld the dismissal from the service of Navy officers who were charged with the death of their fellow officer, Ensign Philip Pestaño, on a Navy ship in 1995.

The CA backed the dismissal order of Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.

With the order, the respondent Navy officers’ appeal to the CA to quash the murder charges filed by the Office of the Ombudsman might also be upheld.

If the CA also upholds the murder charges, the fate of the Navy officers will have been complete and sealed.

The Manila regional trial court which is handling the murder charges against the respondents might take the cue from the appellate court’s decisions and also find the accused guilty.

This country’s judicial system stinks.

*   *   *

The Navy officers—Capt. Ricardo Ordoñez, now retired; and Cmdr. Reynaldo Lopez, Cmdr. Luidegar Casis, Cmdr. Alfrederick Alba and Lt. Cmdr. Joselito Colico; and enlisted personnel Sandy Miranda and Welmenio Aquino—are being charged with a crime they never committed.

Results of investigations by several agencies point to the fact that Pestaño killed himself.

The National Bureau of Investigation found Pestaño’s death a suicide. So did the Western (now Manila) Police District as well as the Philippine National Police Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG).

Even Dr. Raquel del Rosario-Fortun, the forensics expert whom Pestaño’s parents hired to contradict the findings of these agencies, ruled the young officer’s death a suicide.

Only a Senate committee—which didn’t make use of the findings of the NBI, WPD, CIDG and those of Dr. Fortun’s—said Pestaño was murdered.

And since when has the Senate, by itself, become an expert in crime investigation?

Then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez dismissed the murder charges against the Navy officers in 2009.

*   *   *

Just because Gutierrez, Ombudsman Morales’ predecessor, was allegedly corrupt and a midnight appointee of President Gloria doesn’t mean she was incapable of a judicious decision.

Methinks Gutierrez was even more perceptive, insightful and wiser in the area of crime investigation than Morales because she made her decision on the Pestaño murder case based on evidence and not on outside pressure.

Oh, yes, Gutierrez may have accepted bribes as a government watchdog—a customs official who was dismissed for corruption but was reinstated has been telling colleagues he coughed up millions of pesos to Gutierrez before she resigned—but her decision on the Pestaño case was all for justice’s sake.

Those Navy officers are too financially challenged they couldn’t have bribed Gutierrez.

*   *   *

Marilou Uy of Pasig City has all the right to be angry at the MCU Hospital in Caloocan City. Uy’s mom died on Thursday allegedly because of its doctors’ negligence or incompetence.

Lina Francisco was rushed to the MCU Hospital after she complained of difficulty in breathing.

A certain Dr. Puyot reportedly ordered Ms. Francisco released after doing a checkup on her.

Marilou said she told Puyot her mom was still feeling dizzy but the doctor allegedly assured her the old lady was fine.

At 9 p.m. of the same day, Marilou got a call that her mom was again having difficulty breathing.

She had her mom taken back to MCU, where she died later.

Is it standard procedure for a hospital to release a patient even if he or she doesn’t feel okay? Marilou wants to know.