Gadian's case reminds us of Ensign Pestaño

I’m not really a great fan of Sen. Panfilo “Ping” Lacson, but he is right on the nose in his accusations against fellow Sen. Manny Villar that his business benefited from the alleged “insertions” that he okayed along the C-5 Highway in Metro Manila. What we’ve read and heard so far in the news is there is more than enough proof that Sen. Villar’s business has “benefited” from the “insertions” he made in the C-5 Highway. But it seems that the news on the sex video scandal by Dr. Hayden Kho and Katrina Halili has taken the Villar issue off the front pages, which should make the senator very happy.

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That an ongoing probe by the Department of National Defense (DND) on the alleged misuse of some P46 million for the 2007 RP-US Balikatan exercises by Westmincom chief retired Gen. Eugenio Cedo as revealed by Lt. Senior Grade Nancy Gadian is something that many people are looking at very intently… more so that the Philippine Navy’s Efficiency and Separation Board (ESB) is doing the investigating. Now they are asking Gadian to surrender, but as we all know, this is without any guarantees on her personal safety. Thankfully, the Supreme Court, in a writ of amparo, has guaranteed the safety of Gadian. But let’s be completely honest about it, can the Supreme Court really assure Gadian’s personal safety?

I can understand the fear of Gadian because of another ugly Navy incident that happened 14 years ago when Ensign Phillip Pestaño was found dead on board the BRP Bacolod City docked at the Philippine Navy headquarters on Roxas Boulevard. The Navy reported his death as a suicide, but when you looked deeply into this case, it looked more like a conspiracy to murder, as concurred to by Sen. Aquilino “Nene” Pimentel Jr.

Stranger still was that despite a directive to the Department of Justice (DOJ) and the Office of the Ombudsman to conduct a deeper investigation into Ensign Pestaño’s murder, which was conclusively proven, they still terminated the case in 2000, asserting that “the conduct of further investigation in order to find out the identity of the perpetrator and his accomplices if any, will only be a waste of time considering that the physical evidence has already been tampered with not to mention the lapse of time.”

I call the case of Ensign Pestaño the highest form of injustice given to a soldier who wanted to report corruption, but he was cut short by those corrupt officers who would kill their own in order to hide their crime. I can’t put all the details in this corner, but friends of the late Ensign Pestaño has put up a website www.phillippestano.com so interested parties can check this out on the Internet and know that 14 years ago, a murder was done to a Navy ensign and a conspiracy helped cover this up.

So back to Gadian, if she won’t surrender to her superior officers despite assurances from the Supreme Court, should we condemn her for insubordination when history has taught us that the crooks in the military would go to extreme lengths to kill and cover up their crime? I don’t think so. If the Arroyo administration is serious in fighting corruption, then not only the Supreme Court, but President Arroyo herself must also give that assurance to Gadian that she won’t be harmed if she surfaces so we can get into the bottom of this ugly mess.

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Isn’t technology and competition a great thing? Indeed, consumers benefit the most when competition drives companies to outdo each other, especially when you use technology and that’s exactly what is happening to the telecommunication industry today. Last Thursday, Globe Telecom bigwigs led by Ferdinand “Ferdz” de la Cruz, group head of Globe’s consumer wireless business; Manny Aligada, head of the Customer Engagement Group; Catherine Palanca-Santamaria, head of the Segment Business Group, and my dear friend Menchie Osial Cruz, Globe’s chief honcho for communication, held a press conference at the Waterfront Hotel to launch their newest product, the Duo mobile and landline in one!

Globe’s Duo service will be officially launched this coming Monday, May 25, for Cebu Globe users, where you can get a landline number for your existing cell phone without getting another SIM card and without using another cell phone or handset. That means, you can call a Duo number from any landline without paying a single centavo as the charges are already packaged in Duo’s service charge of P399 per month. If you break it down, it’s a mere P13.3 per day, which is tantamount to huge savings in call charges because now you can talk for as long as you like… until of course your cell phone battery dies! Knowing how Cebuanos are sold to good technology, let me just say that Globe Telecom has a big winner in Duo!

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For e-mail responses to this article, write to [email protected]. He also hosts a weekly talkshow, “Straight from the Sky,” every Monday, 8 p.m., only in Metro Cebu on Channel 15 of SkyCable.