Accuser’s claims just sour grapes

Manuel Mejorada, who has accused Senate President Franklin Drilon and two Cabinet members of plunder, told the Senate blue ribbon committee his basis for the allegations is Wikipedia, an online encyclopedia.

For crying out loud, Mejorada should know that Wikipedia facts can be edited or added to by just anyone.

If Mejorada is an investigative journalist as he claims, he could have dug into government records like those at the Department of Public Works and Highways (DPWH) instead, if he wanted access to reliable documents.

Drilon’s statement that Mejorada, a former provincial administrator of Iloilo, is sourgraping, may have some basis.

The Senate President claimed he didn’t give in to Mejorada’s request that he recommend the latter to become an undersecretary.

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If the family of Navy Ensign Philip Pestaño, who died on the BRP Bacolod City in 1995, is crying out for justice, the former officers and enlisted men of the ship accused of murdering him, on the other hand, are appealing for a speedy trial.

If they committed the crime imputed to them, they would have asked for hearing postponements to buy time and think of ways to extricate themselves from the case.

It’s the prosecution that has been asking for a postponement from a Manila court hearing the petition for bail by the accused.

In the bail hearing on Thursday, Nov. 13, the prosecution again failed to present witnesses for two hearings in a row.

A speedy trial benefits both the accuser and the accused.

A prolonged trial wastes the time and saps the energy of the defense and prosecution panels, as well as the judge hearing the case.

Besides, justice delayed is justice denied, as a favorite legal maxim goes.

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For the benefit of those who are not familiar with the Pestaño murder case, here’s a summary:

The young Pestaño was found dead in his cabin with a bullet wound in the head on Sept. 27, 1995.

Pestaño’s superior officers and some enlisted personnel aboard BRP Bacolod City—Capt. Ricardo Ordonez, Commanders Reynaldo Lopez and Alfrederick Alba; Lt. Commanders Luidegar Casis, Joselito Colico and Ruben Roque; Machinery Repairman 2nd Class Sandy Miranda, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Welmenio Aquino, Petty Officer 1st Class Carlito Amoroso and Petty Officer 2nd Class Mil Leonor Igacasan—were considered murder suspects.

They allegedly conspired in murdering Pestaño because he reportedly knew a lot of shenanigans aboard the ship.

But the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) ruled the young Navy officer’s death as suicide. So did the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) as well as the Western (now Manila) Police District (WPD).

A private forensics expert hired by the Pestaños, Dr. Raquel del Rosario-Fortun, also said the young man killed himself.

Based on the findings of the NBI, CIDG, WPD and Dr. Fortun, then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, dismissed the murder case.

But Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales, who replaced Gutierrez, revived the murder case, filed in the Manila Regional Trial Court and ordered the dismissal of the accused from the military service.

The respondents are detained at the Naval Base in Fort Bonifacio.

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There was a booboo in the column of Saturday, Nov. 15, when my staff sent the Metro section one that had already been published on May 15, 2014.

The column appearing today (Nov. 18) was what was intended for that issue. As they say, s**t happens sometimes.

My apologies.