Mercado: Fanning a firestorm
By Juan L. Mercado
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January 31, 2009 Sun Star Daily Cebu
(From http://www2.sunstar.com.ph/static/ceb/2009/02/01/oped/juan.l..mercado.sidebar.html )
WOULD you name a forger as Central Bank governor? “The President did just that, Senator Aquilino Pimentel claims. She did? How?
By naming Vice Admiral Tirso Danga–whose fingerprints were all over the “Hello Garci” scandal- to head the National Printing Office (NPO), the senator says. NPO prints ballots for all elections.
The National Movement for Free Elections and Parish Pastoral Council for Responsible Voting (PPCRV) also flayed Ms Arroyo’s choice. Danga “was involved in questionable issues in the 2004 elections,” Amabassador Henrietta de Villa snapped. She chairs Namfrel and PPCRV. “This appointment does not augur well for transparency in the 2010 elections.”
The last thing this country needs is another firestorm. Yet, Ms. Arroyo stokes the flames with gross choices. Earlier, she fiddled with naming ex-general Jovito Palaparan to the Dangerous Drugs Board.
The Melo Commission assessed the mound of human rights abuse charges against Palparan. It found enough to recommend filing of charges–which the President ignored. And here comes Danga.
Danga’s tracks go back to the 1995 unsolved murder of Cebuano Ensign Philip Pestano abroad the RPS Bacolod, Pimentel says. The 24-year old cargomaster refused to allow shipment of illegal logs, weapons, and drugs. “Kawawa ang bayan,” he told his parents after phone threats.
Pestaño committed suicide, the Navy said without bothering to investigate Naval intelligence commander then was a Capt. Tirso Danga. But a detailed probe by the Senate Committees on Human Rights and National Defense (May 5 to Sept. 3, 1997) however found that Pestano had been murdered.
Senate President and ex-Supreme Court chief justice Marcelo Fernan urged, in January 1998, the Military Ombudsman: “Identify the persons who participated in the deliberate attempt to make it appear that Pestano killed himself inside his stateroom.”
The Ombudsman didn’t budge. Not even when former senator (now Manila mayor) Alfredo Lim exposed tampering of evidence, Lt. Junior Grade Joselito Calico, for instance, wiped the murder weapon. Calico disappeared.
The case festers today. GMA News & Public Affairs launched, last week, a new program titled: “Case Unclosed.” Host Kara David zeroes on crimes left unresolved. Her first program: the Pestano case.
This firestorm threw up questions: Where is RPS Bacolod’s radio operator PO2 Fidel Tagaytay? He never showed up to brief the Provost Marshall on two gunmen sneaking aboard RPS Bacolod. The Navy declared Tagaytay “missing.” Is he alive? Or rubbed out?
PO2 Zosimo Villanueva tipped Pestaño on drugs and arms being loaded. Now, Villanueva is dead. How did that happen?
Danga’s trusted aide PO2 Carlito Amoroso “retired.” He never answered what he did aboard RPA Bacolod when Pestano was killed. Was Danga there too? If so, what for? How and when did they leave the ship?
RPS Bacolod left Sangley for Manila at 7:18 am. That trip normally takes 45 minutes. Instead it took one hour and a half, as the ship meandered all over the bay, before docking at Roxas Boulevard. By then, Pestano was dead.
Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez’s refused to see Pestano’s parents. The venerable Jesuit Father James Reuter started a campaign so people “knock on God’s door” in prayer to secure justice for Pestano.
“Corruption is the curse of this nation,” Fr Reuter writes. “When it takes root in the heart of our Armed Forces, they threaten our existence as a democratic country.”
Admiral/NPO head Danga will agree. So, will his Palace benefactress. They may even pray for a brave murdered Cebuano ensign.
(juanlmercado@gmail.com)
