A hot cold case

Ensign Philip Pestano would have turned 39 this year. For the past 16 years, his parents have cried out for justice. The Philippine Navy’s official version is that 23-year-old Philip, the deck officer and cargo master of BRP Bacolod City, committed suicide with a single bullet to his head. They presented evidence, including a suicide note and the confirmation from forensic pathologists that Pestano died by his own hand. NBI and the WPD agreed with the findings.

The family however, tells a different story. They maintain that despite his commander’s plea, Philip was determined to expose the illegal cargo that their logistics ship transported. Pepe, Philip’s father testified that there were illegally cut bakawan (mangrove) logs, shabu and military weapons for sale to the Abu Sayyaf. At first, Philip was ordered to go on shore leave. His father begged him to resign, but the brave Ensign supposedly said, “Kawawa ang bayan”. He returned for duty and met his fate.

Senators Marcelo Fernan and Orly Mercado led a Senate inquiry in 1997. The Navy-tale began unraveling. The suicide note was found to be a forgery. There were two unexplained contusions near the fatal head wound. The position of the gun on the floor, the negative result of the paraffin test on the victim’s hand, the singeing, blood flow and absence of spatter and tissue contradicted the official statement that Philip shot himself in his stateroom. The Senate concluded it was homicide, not suicide.

The sudden disappearance of three key witnesses added more fuel to the speculation. PO3 Fidel Tagaytay, the Radio operator on duty; Ens. Alvin Parone, a crewmember; and Coastguard PO2 Zosimo Villanueva all vanished. Furthermore, Vice Admiral Pio Carranza allegedly asked Pepe to sign an affidavit of waiver or lose the P200M ship repair contract that he had previously won. When he refused, the ships under-repair were reportedly sunk, destroying him financially.

There were other doubts. Why did BRP Bacolod City take a two-hour “dogleg” route, instead of the normal 45-minute trip to the Roxas Boulevard Headquarters from Cavite? To keen CSI-watchers, the Forensic Experiment Report submitted by Dean Artemio Panganiban shot more holes in the Navy testimony. He observed that the two contusions on the right temple had similar dimensions to the muzzle of a .45 Semi-automatic pistol but ruled out the fatal shot as its cause, since the tendency is for the head to move away from the impact. Hence the bruises could not be self-inflicted. Another laceration at the pinna of his left ear was also a puzzler, since he fell on a soft mattress. In the re-enactment, the blood patterns did not fit with the position of the victim on the bed.

A baffling mystery that has languished in the cold files, it has neither clarity nor closure to this day. The PMA Maalab Class ’93 and Ateneo High School Class ’89 formed the Philip Pestano Foundation guided by Father James Reuter. An online prayer brigade is ongoing.

The retired Commanding Officer of BRP Bacolod City, Captain Ricardo Ordonez also launched his own e-mail campaign and prayer support from his Parish and BCBP (Brotherhood of Christian Businessmen and Professionals). He answers the column of Fr. Reuter through a letter with attachments from the 1995 NBI Report. He laments the continued persecution and includes character references. “For some years now, many have tried to malign my name, destroy my reputation or cast doubts on me because of the distortions done or taken up by some people about this case to further their own ends.”

One affidavit lists the “unofficial” cargo they transported. The point was that although they bend some rules, this was not extreme, and considered routine:

“I did granted the request for 20 drums of fuel given to Governor Matba knowing that it will be used for the government bulldozer I transported from Languyan to Marang-Marang Tawi-Tawi for the construction of feeder roads… I did bought two sacks of rice and pig for my own family consumption and I did bought 300 pieces of bakawan for my personal use. I also loaded as directed and as a jibed mission, flitches of lumbers intended for the Flag Officer In Command.”

The Inspector General’s Report in March 1997 cited: 1) The dogleg route that caused delay; 2) the questionable unloading of the death weapon’s magazine by Ens. Colico even before the inquiry from the authorities; 3) the torn pages from the gangway logbook, hiding the identities of those who got on and off the ship; 4) the stomach hemorrhage sustained, possibly caused by contact with a hard object or fist; 5) Since there are no eyewitnesses, the circumstantial evidence would tend to rule out the theory of suicide.

Yet on May 2, 2000 the Ombudsman’s report declared: The conduct of further investigation in order to find out the identity of the perpetrator . . . will only be a waste of time considering that the physical evidence has been tampered with not to mention the lapse of time . . . we find no cogent reason to disturb the above findings . . . will only prove futile…useless offering false hopes to those expecting blood gushing from stones…unnecessary clogging of dockets.

This whodunit is the 5th charge in the articles of impeachment against Merceditas Gutierrez. Along with the fertilizer scam, PNP Euro-Generals, the Mega-Pacific and NBN-ZTE contracts, this was one more major case that the sitting Ombudsman sat on. Because of the delay in resolution and subsequent dismissal the UN Human Rights Committee declared that the Philippine Government violated its obligations under the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.

As desensitized as we may be from living through our fair share of massacres, extra-judicial killings and unsolved heinous crimes, this hot cold case is particularly disturbing if not heartrending. The unanswered questions surrounding the official verdict, demonstrates how deeply impunity has permeated our society. As long as there is no final resolution, our nation might as well have a gun to its head.

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