A real forensic expert

Just so the readers are reminded, Dr. Raquel Fortun, University of the Philippines (UP) forensics expert, solved the Percy Lapid assassination case, not the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and Philippine National Police (PNP).

Confessed gunman Joel Escorial pointed to inmate Jun Villamor as the middleman in a conspiracy to murder the noted radio commentator.

Villamor died inside the New Bilibid Prisons. However, before his untimely demise, he told his sister his life was in danger after Escorial’s confession.

NBI and PNP crime investigators ruled that Villamor died of natural causes.

Dr. Fortun, though, said that Villamor was suffocated: he died because a plastic bag was wrapped around his head.

Dr. Fortun’s findings were later adopted by the NBI and PNP.

It looks like the NBI and PNP need to retire their own forensics experts, as the famous pathologist is clobbering them when it comes to investigations concerning high-profile crimes.

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In December 1995, Dr. Fortun ruled that Navy Ensign Philip Pestaño, 23, committed suicide and was not murdered by his superiors aboard BRP Bacolod City on Sept. 27, 1995.

Pestaño was found inside his cabin, dead with a gunshot wound to the head.

Dr. Fortun made her findings public, despite the fact that she was hired by the Pestaño family, who claimed that the young officer was killed by his superiors.

Those charged with Pestano’s death were Navy Capt. Ricardo Ordonez, Cmdr. Reynaldo Lopez, Lt. Cmdr. Luidegar Casis, Lt. Cmdr. Alfrederick Alba, Lt. Cmdr. Joselito Colico, Petty Officer 2nd Class Mil Leonor Igcasan, Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Wilmenio Aquino and Machinery Repairman 2nd Sandy Miranda.

Pestaño’s death was a cause célèbre, and public opinion at the time condemned the accused.

The case reached the Senate, and a supposed American forensics expert, Wayne Hill Sr., was called on to testify. Wayne said that Pestaño was murdered.

Dr. Fortun said that Hill was not a forensic pathologist.

(During my research in 2015, this columnist found that Hill was a pastor, a former policeman who moonlighted as a standup comedian and a part-time actor).

Wayne’s findings were the basis for the filing of murder charges against eight Navy officers and men by Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.

The Filipino’s colonial mentality reared its ugly head again in the Pestaño case when the Ombudsman rejected Dr. Fortun’s findings in favor of an American comedian!

While their case was being heard, the eight Navy men were in jail, murder being a non-bailable offense.

On May 14, 2021, the Supreme Court ruled that all the accused were innocent.

Before the high court’s decision, the accused suffered from a miscarriage of justice.

In the interim, the reputations of all the accused were destroyed, thanks, but no thanks, to public opinion.

All the Navy men were bypassed in promotions and their salaries withheld while they were in detention.

For example, Cmdr. Lopez, the valedictorian of the Philippine Military Academy Class of 1992, would have had a bright future in the Navy if not for the Pestaño case.

All of Lopez’s PMA classmates are now generals in the Armed Forces of the Philippines and the Philippine National Police.

Lopez resigned in disgust last year.

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Bureau of Corrections (BuCor) officer-in-charge Gregorio Catapang says he found several problems within BuCor that need immediate attention.

According to Catapang, among the challenges he unearthed was that corrupt BuCor personnel were committing nefarious activities, like the blatant smuggling of contraband such as drugs, liquor, cellular phones and deadly weapons.

“Never blink your eyes, or else you will get an incident when someone is able to slip in some contraband,” said the acting BuCor chief, a retired Armed Forces chief of staff.

Catapang’s immediate concern now is how to dismantle the syndicate composed of prison guards who are related to one another, either by blood or affinity.

As I said in Tuesday’s column, guards cover up for the shenanigans of others out of family loyalty.

The late former BuCor director Vicente Vinarao tried to break up the “family” syndicate at the New Bilibid Prisons by assigning many of them to other prison colonies in the provinces.

But the fraternal loyalty had become deeply entrenched. Vinarao was only partially successful.

The other directors who replaced him weren’t aware of the fraternal cabal, which again flourished after Vinarao’s time.

Even the elite PNP Special Action Force, whose members were assigned to the NBP, could not prevent the smuggling of contraband into the facility. This happened because they either didn’t know the intricacies of the system, or they became complicit with the syndicate after a while.

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PNP Chief Rodolfo Azurin says the war on drugs will no longer be “kill, kill, kill,” apparently referring to the previous administration’s take-no-prisoners attitude in dealing with drug lords and drug pushers.

Different strokes for different folks, as the saying goes.

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If what a PNP official told me is true, why did policemen who killed drug personalities have to call a number, after which money would be deposited in their bank accounts?

A PNP colonel said that whenever they killed a drug dealer or pusher, they would be given a reward for each kill, and the reward depended on the ranking of the slain personality in the drug totem pole.

If such was the case, then why are there still so many remaining drug dealers and pushers, if I may ask?

Why was the Duterte administration’s centerpiece an utter failure in eliminating the illegal drug trade in the streets?

Is it because the police favored some drug syndicates over others, and those killed were members of rival syndicates?

Just asking.