Friday, January 13, 2012

DONG XOAI



Vietnam 1965: Joe Kubert captures the action and confusion of the men in the heat of battle through his ink and style. In this fiction loosely based on real events of the Vietnam War, he was able to depict the story clearly with his unique brand of illustrations- raw, rough and real.

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

OFFICE OF THE OMBUDSMAN: ‘Pestaño case not suicide but murder’


10 Navy officers face raps in ensign’s slay

Agreeing with the parents of Navy Ensign Philip Pestaño that he did not kill himself 16 years ago, the Office of the Ombudsman reversed itself and filed murder charges against 10 Navy officers in the Sandiganbayan Wednesday and ordered their dismissal for grave misconduct.

If they could no longer be dismissed, the alternative penalty is a fine equivalent to their one year salary.

The 24-year-old Pestaño was found dead in his cabin aboard the BRP Bacolod City on

Sept. 27, 1995, shortly before the ship was to dock at the Philippine Navy headquarters in Manila. He had bullet wounds in the head.

A supposed suicide note was found on his body, but his parents, Felipe and Evelyn, refused to believe that their son killed himself and filed charges against the Navy officials.

In 2009, the antigraft body, then headed by Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez, dismissed the complaint, saying the evidence was circumstantial.

The Pestaños filed a motion for reconsideration, which was granted in an order approved by Gutierrez’s successor, Conchita Carpio Morales, on January 10.

The alleged inaction on the Pestaño case was one of the grounds raised against Gutierrez during her impeachment last 2011.

Charged with the nonbailable crime of murder were Capt. Ricardo Ordoñez; Cmdr. Reynaldo Lopez, Hospital Man 2 Welmenio Aquino, Lt. Cmdr. Luidegar Casis, Lt. Cmdr. Alfrederick Alba, Machinery Repairman 2 Sandy Miranda, Lt. Cmdr. Joselito Colico, Lt. Cmdr. Ruben Roque, PO1 Carlito Amoroso and PO2 Leonor Igcasan.

Circumstances

In the latest order, Ombudsman Morales said the circumstances surrounding the young officer’s death belied the earlier finding that he had committed suicide. His own wounds did not appear self-inflicted, she said.

Morales said Pestaño had two contusions on the right temple and a cut in the left ear, which, it added could not have been caused by the bullet fired into his head but a hard, blunt object.

The bullet’s entry wound was oval in shape and did not bear any tattooing, smudging or burn mark as what would have happened during a close-contact fire, Morales said.

“It is farfetched for a person who commits suicide to shoot himself in the head at a distance,” she noted.

Citing findings of forensic experts, the Ombudsman said the handwriting on the suicide note was different from that of Pestaño’s.

Bullet path

The conflicting observations on the trajectory of the bullet also debunked the suicide theory, Morales said.

While the autopsy report showed a downward trajectory, the Philippine National Police Crime Laboratory said the bullet mark on the cabin wall was caused by a bullet hurtling upward.

The bullet was also found on the bed and not on the floor where it should have landed, the Ombudsman said.

Morales further pointed out a blood smear was found on the cabin wall, but no blood spatters, bone fragments or human tissue on that wall despite its close proximity to the bullet’s exit point.

The Ombudsman cited the finding of splotches of blood on the pillow parallel to Pestaño’s head, as well as pools of blood on the bed. As a forensic expert said, the blood could not have crawled up from the bed to the pillow.

Morales found it hard to give credence to Aquino’s testimony that Pestaño borrowed his gun to kill himself. Pestaño had his own gun in the first place, it said, and it was “irrational” for an officer and a gentleman who wanted to die by his own hands to borrow a gun.

Gangway duty

Aquino could also not have been at the gangway that time since he assumed his gangway duty only after Pestaño was found dead, the Ombudsman added.

In finding the 10 Navy officers liable for the death, Morales said it appeared that their apprehension that Pestaño would expose the illegal activity aboard the Bacolod City motivated them to kill him.

She noted that the Senate and Armed Forces received information about a shipment of undocumented lumber aboard the ship in exchange for drums of fuel oil.

Pestaño, as cargo deck officer, was said to have objected to the shipment but was prevailed upon by the superior officers to allow it.

Unnatural reactions

The Ombudsman said the officers’ reaction to finding Pestaño dead was unnatural.

Morales said Ordoñez did not rush to see Pestaño but instead focused on docking the ship at the Navy headquarters. He should have seen to it that the pieces of evidence in the cabin was not moved, she added.

Lopez, who claimed to be Pestaño’s closest friend, did not immediately go to the cabin, Morales said, but waited for the ship to dock and for the police to arrive. This is not a normal reaction for someone losing a friend to suicide, she added.

The Ombudsman said Colico, who found the body, did not immediately report it to the executive officer or check on Pestaño’s breathing or pulse. She said the normal reaction of a fellow officer would have been to check if the victim was still alive.

Casis did not stop Colico from picking up the gun, emptying it of bullets and cleaning it with a piece of paper, Morales said. She said Casis, a graduate of the US Naval Academy, would not have been ignorant of basic protocol in crime investigations.

The individual reactions “run counter to the grain of human nature and experience” and led the Ombudsman to conclude that they had conspired to kill Pestaño and to fabricate evidence to make it appear as a suicide.

Conflicting statements

The officers also gave conflicting statements, Morales said.

At first, Colico told the National Bureau of Investigation that Roque had told him to check on Pestaño, but he later told police officers that he took it upon himself to look in on his colleague, Morales said. He also gave different times when asked when he found the body.

Colico said that when he cleaned the gun and removed the bullets, he was with Casis and Aquino. But Alba said he, Miranda and Aquino were the ones present. Roque claimed to have been at the scene, but this was contradicted by Casis.

Ordoñez failed to disclose the presence of Amoroso on the ship when Pestaño died, the Ombudsman said.

Ordoñez later said Amoroso disembarked at Sangley Point in Cavite and never returned.

But Amoroso’s cabin mates said he was on board the ship on its trip to Roxas Boulevard where the Navy headquarters is located.

‘Unusual dogleg route’

The Ombudsman gave weight to new evidence presented by Pestaño’s parents, which came from the Armed Forces investigation and made available to them only 10 years after their son’s death.

One such evidence was the ship’s “unusual dogleg route” from Sangley to the Navy headquarters. The trip usually takes 45 minutes, but it took two hours on the day of Pestaño’s death.

“An unexplained delay of about one hour and 15 minutes raises the presumption that the prolonged trip was occasioned by the time it took respondents to create the suicide scenario,” the Ombudsman said.

Pages were also ripped off from the gangway logbook, which would have shown the names of the crew members aboard the ship.

There was also no passenger manifest that would have shown who was on board at that time. This could have been the basis as to who would have to undergo a paraffin test to see if any of them had fired a gun, the Ombudsman said.http://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gif

These indicate an attempt to conceal important information, Morales said.

The Ombudsman’s order was signed by graft investigation and prosecution officer Yvette Marie Evaristo, Director Dennis Garcia, Assistant Ombudsman Eulogio Cecilio and Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro.
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By Leila Salaverria
Philippine Daily Inquirer
Originally posted at 05:12 pm | Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Friday, January 6, 2012

2 ex-AFP chiefs, 9 more top brass face plunder raps

By Marlon Ramos
Philippine Daily Inquirer

The Department of Justice (DOJ) on Thursday recommended the filing of plunder charges against retired Armed Forces Chiefs of Staff Diomedio Villanueva and Roy Cimatu, former comptrollers Carlos Garcia and Jacinto Ligot, and seven others accused of diverting and pocketing P2.3 billion in funds intended for troop salaries and combat needs.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said the decision of the DOJ panel, led by Prosecutor General Claro Arellano, to pursue legal action against those behind the illegal practice was a stern warning to military officials.

The case stemmed from the revelations of former military budget officer George Rabusa, who testified in a Senate inquiry last year about the intricate pabaon (sendoff) and pasalubong (welcome gift) for outgoing and incoming AFP chiefs of staff.

“This should really be a fresh start and a clean slate for the current AFP leadership under (the Aquino) administration,” De Lima said at a news briefing.

At least three military officers on the DOJ list are in active service, including Brigadier General Benito de Leon.

Asked if the filing of the criminal charge was a warning to military officials, De Lima replied: “You can call it that. I like to believe that those in the rank-and-file and ordinary soldiers welcome this development.”

Open secret

“It’s an open secret that these anomalies happen within the AFP where millions and millions of pesos were involved in the irregularities,” she added.

In a 105-page resolution, the three-member panel of prosecutors said there was a “semblance of truth” to Rabusa’s allegations that the accused had conspired with one another in pilfering from the AFP coffers.

“We are convinced that the AFP’s budget had been plundered during the period stated by the complainant,” read a portion of the DOJ resolution.

“In the instant case, complainant’s grandiose illustration of the ‘rampant irregularities in the AFP’ relative to the malversation, misuse and misappropriation of its funds, appears to have a semblance of truth,” it added.

Rabusa claimed Villanueva could have earned over P227 million from the conversion of military funds. Cimatu pocketed around P140 in his brief stay as AFP chief, he said. Cimatu, who served as special envoy to the Middle East after retiring from the military, and Villanueva have denied receiving any payoff.

Rabusa said Ligot made about P360 million while Garcia, jailed for another graft case, took some P368 million.

Others recommended to be charged were retired Major General Hilario Atendido, retired Colonels Cirilo Donato and Roy Devesa, retired Lieutenant Colonel Ernesto Paranis, J-6 accounting division chief Generoso del Castillo and former State Auditor Divina Cabrera.

“Most, if not all, of the concerned respondents had admitted to the existence of the OPB (Operating Program and Budget) as a measure of implementing lump-sum appropriations made by the Philippine Congress of the AFP budget,” the DOJ panel said.

The panel said it appeared that it was through the realignment of the (military budget), through the OPB, “that respondents were able to malverse and/or convert AFP funds from the purposes that are different from their original allotment.”

11 others absolved

However, the panel of prosecutors absolved 11 others of complicity, saying there was no sufficient evidence to include them as accused. Cleared were former AFP Chief of Staff General Efren Abu, retired Lieutenant General Gaudencio Pangilinan, retired Major Generals Epineto Logico and Ernesto Boac, Navy Captain Kenneth Paglinawan, Colonel Gilbert Gapay and Major Emerson Angulo.

The DOJ panel also dismissed the case against Colonel Robert Arevalo and former State Auditors Arturo Besana, Crisanto Gabriel and Manuel Warren.

A known close associate of Defense Secretary Voltaire Gazmin, Boac is currently the budget officer of the Department of National Defense. Pangilinan, on the other hand, was appointed by President Benigno Aquino III as director of the Bureau of Corrections.

De Lima, however, clarified that the DOJ resolution was still subject to review by the Office of the Ombudsman, the only government agency mandated to file graft and corruption cases in the Sandiganbayan.

“Since this is a plunder case, the final say would fall on the Ombudsman, This is merely recommendatory,” the justice secretary said, adding that her department would immediately transmit the documents regarding the case to the antigraft body.

“It is up to the Ombudsman (if it wants to) adopt, modify or reverse the resolution. It’s up to the Ombudsman to decide or determine whether there is a need for another preliminary investigation,” De Lima said.

In his complaint, Rabusa accused the respondents of converting “commercial vouchers” of the Intelligence Service of the AFP (Isafp) and “J2” (Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Intelligence) into cash.

He said the money, supposedly intended for intelligence projects of the AFP, was illegally diverted for cash allocations of the Office of the Chief of Staff, monthly cash incentives of some senior military officials, administrative-related expenses and for personal expenses of some of the respondents.

Exacting accountability

Sought for comment, Rabusa said he was “both happy and sad” about the resolution of the DOJ panel.

“I’m happy because while not all of the respondents will be charged, those officials who I expected to be included (in the complaint) were there,” the whistle-blower told the Philippine Daily Inquirer over the phone.

“I’m somewhat sad because not all of them were charged. But as my lawyer said, we could still appeal the DOJ recommendation in the Ombudsman,” he said.

“But I respect the decision of the DOJ panel. At least, we know that we now have a process (of exacting accountability).” With a report from AP

Sunday, January 1, 2012

Dead Shot: 'One shot, one kill'


Behind the steady finger that pulls the trigger and the sharp eye that peeks through the crosshairs are men like Gunnery Sergeant Kyle Swanson and the enigmatic Juba, two snipers on different sides of the spectrum but with one common mission- to exterminate anybody on their path with 'one shot, one kill."

Add Baghdad, Black Ops, Al Qaeda, Chemical weapons and the Iranian connection make Dead Shot a good read; a novel that is just all right but still manages to intrigue.