Pestaño case revived

MANILA, Philippines - After 16 years, the killing of Ensign Philip Andrew Pestaño came to light after the Office of the Ombudsman yesterday filed murder charges against 10 officials and officers of the Philippine Navy.

Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales reversed the May 2010 decision of the Sandiganbayan dismissing the case. She said there is probable cause to file charges against the respondents before the anti-graft court.

Among those charged were Captain Ricardo Ordoñez, Cdr. Reynaldo Lopez, HM2 Welmenio Aquino, LCdr. Luidegar Casis, LCdr. Alfrederick Alba, MR2 Sandy Miranda, LCdr. Joselito Colico, LCdr. Ruben Roque, Petty Officer 1st Class Carlito Amoroso, and Petty Officer 2nd Class Mil Leonor Igcasan.

The victim’s father, reached by The STAR for comment, said they are glad to finally find justice though they are not very happy with how the case dragged on for 16 years.

“Justice will eventually be served to those who murdered him,” Felipe Pestaño said while expressing dismay over how “justice rolls very slowly.”

Morales said the respondents are also liable for grave misconduct and ordered those who are still in active service to be dismissed.

Morales said she has found “a prima facie case of conspiracy to commit murder” against the Navy officials and officers “after taking a hard look at the case including the additional evidence unearthed in the AFP (Armed Forces of the Philippines) investigation which were made available to the complainants ten years after the death of Ensign Pestaño.”

Graft investigation and prosecution officer Yvette Marie Evaristo recommended no bail for the respondents for the whole duration of the trial.

“The totality of circumstances before, during and after the ‘discovery’ of the death of Philip (Pestaño) prima facie points that respondents conspired to kill him. And the attempt to cover it up solidifies the prima facie conclusion that respondents committed a premeditated act to and did kill him, hence, probable cause for murder lies against them,” the Ombudsman said.

The Ombudsman said the victim could not have committed suicide as evidenced by the absence of tattooing, smudging or burn mark around the gunshot wound, indicative that the firearm was not in contact with the bullet entry point; the absence of blood spatter, bone fragments or other tissue on the wall of the victim’s cabin; and blood pooling on the pillow and other spots of Pestaño’s bed.

The autopsy report also showed the trajectory of the bullet passing through the victim’s head and the location of the bullet mark on the cabin wall do not tally against each other, as the wound was downward while the slug was fired upward.

The Ombudsman said findings of Western Police District – Central Crime Laboratory that the handwriting on the purported suicide note and the signature on it were written by different persons were also considered.

Overall Deputy Ombudsman Orlando Casimiro on May 17, 2010, approved the recommendations of ombudsman investigators that the criminal charges be dismissed for insufficiency of evidence.

The dismissal was based on findings that “the evidence failed to constitute an unbroken chain which leads to a fair and reasonable conclusion that a crime has been committed and that respondents are probably guilty thereof.”

But Ombudsman Morales, in a 21-page Joint Order, ruled in favor of the complainants and granted their motion for reconsideration of the first resolution.

 “This is a very big blow to what (former Ombudsman) Merceditas Gutierrez did,” Pestaño’s father said, referring to how the Office of the Ombudsman, then under the leadership of Gutierrez, junked their complaint.

The elder Pestaño noted that no less than the United Nations Human Rights Committee (UNHRC) has ruled that his son did not commit suicide.

The Philippine Navy, on the other hand, declined to issue a statement over the case.

“We need to get a copy first of the order before we can make any official statement,” Navy spokesman Lt. Col. Omar Tonsay said.

“There are procedures. We need to get a copy first of the orders before can make any official statement because we don’t know its (order) content,” Tonsay said.

Pestaño was found dead inside a Navy ship where he was assigned as cargo master.

A pistol and a letter saying that he committed suicide were found beside the body, but it was not enough to convince probers that the young Navy officer indeed took his own life.

Pestaño reportedly discovered that the cargo loaded in the ship were illegally cut logs and some 50 sacks of shabu passed off as flour.

Pestaño reportedly refused to sign on to approve the cargo despite the pleadings of superior officers.

His parents reportedly received calls warning that their son might get killed.

The elder Pestaño reportedly pleaded with his son not to go back to the ship and give up his military career.

Pestaño, however, reported back to the ship that sailed from Cavite to Roxas Blvd.

On Sept. 27, 1995, on a trip that usually took only 45 minutes, the ship arrived an hour and a half later, with Pestaño already dead.

The circumstances surrounding Pestaño’s death triggered the Senate to conduct an investigation.

The Senate concluded Pestaño was murdered.

The Ombudsman handled the Pestaño case in 1998 but dismissed it, citing the difficulty of determining the perpetrators and the tampering of evidence.

The UNCHR also took note of the case and urged the Philippine government to pursue the prosecution.

Pestaño graduated from the Philippine Military Academy in 1989. In 1993, he became an ensign in the Philippine Navy and was assigned as a cargo master on a Navy ship. – With Jaime Laude