ON TARGET Pestaño’s case: The true story

By Ramon Tulfo
Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Office of the Ombudsman has revived the case of Ensign Philip Andrew A. Pestaño who was found dead with a bullet wound in the head aboard the Philippine Navy ship BRP Bacolod City on Sept. 27, 1995.

It’s surprising why the Office of the Ombudsman would believe there was foul play in Pestaño’s death when three police agencies ruled it a suicide.

The police agencies were the Western Police District (since renamed Manila Police District), the Criminal Investigation and Detection of the Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation.

Is the Ombudsman questioning the competence of these three law-enforcement agecies?

Is the Ombudsman also questioning the competence of Dr. Raquel B. del Rosario-Fortun, a private forensic pathologist, whose services were hired by Pestaño’s parents?

Dr. Fortun undertook the study of the cause of Pestaño’s death with the Department of Legal Medicine, Kobe (Japan) University School of Medicine, with the department chair, Prof. Yoshitsugu Tatsuno.

Fortun also ruled the young Navy officer’s death a suicide.

Now what?

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Pestaño’s parents, Felipe and Evelyn, would not accept Fortun’s findings even if they were the ones who hired her.

They insist their son was killed by fellow Navy personnel who were allegedly covering up an irregularity aboard the ship.

Why can’t they accept the fact that their son was despondent days before he committed suicide?

In fact, records at the Southern Command Hospital in Zamboanga City would show that Pestaño was taken there after he slashed his wrist days before the suicide.

He was referred to Lt. Col. Jose del Rosario, a neuro-psychiatrist for examination.

But for one reason or another, Pestaño was allowed to board the BRP Bacolod City.

Why was he despondent?

Pestaño was facing an administrative case filed by his former girlfriend.

Felipe and Evelyn allegedly forced their son to leave the woman for another because she happened to be a member of another religion.

Why can’t the Pestaños accept the fact they could have been the ones who drove Philip to commit suicide because of their meddling in his private affairs?