Reveille: The search for truth

By: Ramon Farolan
Philippine Daily Inquirer

On Sept. 27, 1995, Ensign Philip A. Pestaño, a 1993 graduate of the Philippine Military Academy was discovered dead aboard the BRP Bacolod City inside his stateroom. He had a single bullet gunshot wound to the right temple.

Since that time there have been a series of investigations carried out by several government agencies with private forensic/medical examiners being called in to help determine the cause of death. Conflicting opinions were expressed.

For a better appreciation of the case, let me provide excerpts from several of these reports as well as a study conducted on the same.

National Bureau of Investigation (NBI)

On 2 October 1995, Felipe Y. Pestaño, father of Philip, requested the NBI for investigative assistance on the death of his son.

The findings of SRA Ludovico T. Lara submitted to the Chief, Interpol Division, dated 24 November 1995 reads as follows:

Comments and Observations:

23. (number refers to the paragraph on the report) Evidence gathered so far indicates no foul play in the death of Ensign Philip A. Pestaño. The weight of the evidence gathered tends to support the theory of suicide.

Fortun Report

On 13 November 1995, Atty. Haydee Yorac addressed a letter to Dr. Raquel B. del Rosario-Fortun, forensic pathologist, General Anatomic and Clinical Pathology, UP College of Medicine. It reads as follows:

On behalf of our client Felipe Y. Pestaño, we would like to request your assistance in the evaluation of the autopsy examination and related forensic tests conducted by police authorities on our client’s late son, Philip Andrew Pestaño…. our client believes with your assistance the truth will be revealed and justice served.

On 5 December 1995, Dr. Raquel del Rosario-Fortun, forensic pathologist, submitted a summary and opinion on Ensign Pestaño’s death. Part of the report reads as follows:

The cause of death is consistent with perforating handgun wound to the head. Based on available information, there is no reason or cause to call the manner of death other than suicide.

PNP Criminal Investigation Group (CIG)/Criminal Investigation and Detective Office

Investigation Report Re: Mysterious Death of Ensign Philip A. Pestaño, PN. According to this report, on 24 February 1997, Mr. and Mrs. Pestaño made a personal appearance before the Office of the Director, CIG requesting assistance in the reinvestigation of their son’s death.

Matters Investigated:

6. (number refers to the paragraph on the report) To determine if indeed Ensign Philip A. Pestaño committed suicide or was deliberately killed aboard BRP Bacolod City on that fateful morning of 27 September 1995.

Conclusion:

177. The weight of the evidence overwhelmingly supports a conclusion and inspires a belief that Philip died from self-inflicted wounds while in the act of committing suicide on that fateful morning of 27 September 1995.

Recommendations:

178. Recommend that the investigation of this case be considered closed insofar as the CIG is concerned.

180. Copies of this investigation report should be furnished to the Philippine Navy, the Senate, and the House of Representatives for their information and appreciation.

Senate Committee Report

From 5 May-3 September 1997, the Committees on Justice and Human Rights and on National Defense and Security conducted 8 committee hearings, including an ocular inspection of the stateroom of Ensign Pestaño. The Committees submitted their report on 29 January 1998.

Conclusion:

1. (number refers to the paragraph of the report) Pestaño did not kill himself aboard the BRP Bacolod City on 27 September 1995.

2. Pestaño was shot elsewhere in the vessel.

Recommendations:

4. An independent reinvestigation be conducted on the circumstances surrounding the killing of Ensign Pestaño with the end in view of bringing the perpetrators to justice as well as to identify the persons who participated in the deliberate attempt to make it appear that Pestaño killed himself inside his stateroom.

Fortun-Tatsuno Study

In 1997-1998, Dr. Raquel Fortun and Dr. Yoshitsugu Tatsuno, professor of Legal Medicine, Kobe University School of Medicine, completed a study of the Pestaño case entitled “Death Aboard Ship from a Single Gunshot Wound of the Head: Forensic Issues of the Pestaño Case.” The study was made during the research fellowship of Dr. Fortun under the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Long Term Invitation Program.

Conclusion of the Study:

This is the case of a 23-year-old who was found dead inside his stateroom aboard ship. He sustained a single perforating gunshot wound to the right temple. Analysis of information known so far indicates that the manner of death is suicide based on scene investigation, physical evidences, witness accounts, and autopsy findings. The decedent left a suicide note. The preponderance of evidence does not support a theory of homicide.

In general, suicide determination is difficult to do on the part of the death investigator. Likewise it is often not easily acceptable to the decedent’s next of kin. Truthful recognition and reporting of suicide are however very important not only to maintain accurate public records but also in the interest of justice. Pursuing the theory of homicide without sound forensic proof could hurt innocent people.

* * *

There were other forensic expert reports submitted on the Pestaño case. One was by an American who viewed himself as a “firearms/self-defense consultant aside from being a forensic examiner.”

Forensic pathology is a branch of pathology concerned with determining the cause of death by examination of a corpse usually during the investigation of a criminal case. Doctor Fortun is the first Filipino woman to become a forensic pathologist. She is known as the “Mother of Forensic Pathology” in the Philippines. She was a Ten Outstanding Young Men (TOYM) awardee in 2002 for Forensic Pathology and one of The Outstanding Women in the Nation’s Service (TOWNS) awardee in 2004. Although she was subpoenaed by the Senate during the Pestaño hearings, her expert testimony is nowhere to be found in the Senate report.

The death of Ensign Pestaño remains a mystery. Some say it was murder; some, suicide. If it were murder, who pulled the trigger? If it were suicide, then there are no murderers.

The death of any human being is always a tragedy. It is also a tragedy when in the search for the truth, a possible miscarriage of justice results in promising careers being cut short and innocent lives destroyed.

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?

* * *

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?

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

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