The ten accused were identified as Naval Captain Ricardo Ordoñez,Commander Reynaldo Lopez, HM2 Welmenio Aquino, Lieutenant Commanders Luidegar Casis, Alfrederick Alba,Joselito Colico and Ruben Roque; and Petty Officer 1st Class Carlito Amoroso, Petty Officer 2nd Class Mil Leonor Igcasan and MR2 Sandy Miranda.
Prior to his death, Pestaño was assigned to work on the BRP Bacolod City, a supply ship that was allegedly transporting weapons, illegally cut logs and even drugs.
Pestaño threatened to expose the illegal activities in the Navy but was later found dead in his cabin on board a Navy cargo ship on September 27, 1995.
The Navy declared his death a suicide but his family insisted he was killed, and filed murder charges against Navy officials.
In August 2010, then Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez dismissed the murder charges for lack of evidence.
Speaking to ANC, Pestaño’s father, Pepe, said the family is thankful that the truth about his son’s death is now coming out. “It was not a suicide but a murder. From the very beginning, that is what we know,” he said.
He said there was a massive cover-up in the investigation of his son’s killing, with officials from the Armed Forces, Philippine Navy and the police all saying that Pestaño’s death was a suicide.
A separate probe by the United Nations Committee on Human Rights later showed that Pestaño’s death was not a suicide but rather a homicide.
Pestano’s father said the evidence against those who murdered his son is very strong.
“It’s not finally but it has been a long period for the real justice to prevail,” he said.
2-hour trip
In its decision, the Ombudsman said it found compelling reason to reconsider its previous pronouncement that the evidence submitted by spouses Felipe and Evelyn Pestaño, parents of the slain navy officer, were insufficient to create a prima facie case.
“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 in its resolution.
Belying the theory that Pestaño shot himself were the following details – 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;
absence of blood spatters, bone fragments or other tissues on the wall of the victim’s cabin; blood pooling on the pillow and other spots of Pestaño’s bed;
the autopsy report noting that the trajectory of the bullet passing through the dead man’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 finding of Western Police District – Central Crime Laboratory that the handwriting on the supposed suicide note and the signature on it were written by different persons; and the use of a gun assigned to respondent Aquino when Pestaño has his own firearm assigned to him.
The Ombudsman also considered newly-discovered evidence embodied by the AFP investigation report, made available to the Pestaño family only in 2006, which questioned the fact that BRP Bacolod City took two hours to reach the Navy headquarters in Manila from Sangley Point, Cavite – a trip that usually takes only 45 minutes.
“The 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 pointed out.
The same AFP report showed several pages on the gangway logbook on the ship were torn off again without any explanation while the Passenger Manifest that would have shown all crew members and other persons on board was missing. (David Dizon, ABS-CBNnews.com)
Link: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/01/11/12/10-navy-men-face-murder-raps-pesta%C3%B1o-slay
Ref: http://zamboangajournal.blogspot.com/2009/01/remembering-heroism-of-philip-pestao.html
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