Ens. Phillip Andrew A. Pestaño Website

Killer haven

By Juan Mercado

Cebu Daily News/Philippine Daily Inquirer
08/07/2007

“No place indeed should sanctuarize murder,” Hamlet muttered on the ramparts of his dank damp castle. Is sanctuarized murder emerging in the 12-year-old unsolved killing of Philippine Navy’s Phillip Andrew Pestano, in which witnesses are now vanishing, one after another?

Ensign Pestano was a Cebuano and an honor student in both Ateneo and Philippine Military Academy (Class 1993). He was only 23, engaged to be married, when found shot in his cabin on the logistics ship BRP Bacolod City in September 1995. The ship meandered on a bizarre hour-and-a-half trip from Cavite to Navy Headquarters on Roxas Boulevard. Normally, that trip takes 25 minutes. Logbook entries on this trip disappeared.

Within that same day, the Navy ruled, sans investigation, that the cargomaster committed suicide. Basis? A “suicide note” found in his cabin. Nonsense, objected Pestano’s PMA classmates who pointed out the different handwriting, stilted language and absence of powder burns.

After the NBI and Military Ombudsman waffled, they wrote then Senate President Marcelo Fernan, documenting how Pestano blew the whistle on navy ships hijacked for smuggling. Pestano, for example, refused to authorize loading 14,000 board feet of illegal hardwood logs in Tawi-Tawi. “Part of the cargo was a gift of the governor (Gerry Matba) to his long-time friend: the flag-officer-in command, Admiral Pio Carranza.

“Orders from above” overruled Pestano. DENR certified the logs were inspected in Zamboanga on Sept 25. Yet, the boat - commanded then by Capt. Ricardo Ordoñez and executive officer Lt. Ruben Roque - docked in Cavite that day. The logs promptly vanished, but spurious clearances appeared.

Pestano’s zero-tolerance for abuse, including peddling of high-powered weapons to rebels and peddling of ship bunker fuel, spelled danger. Pestano’s parents pleaded with him to resign: “Don’t go back. We’ve received phone calls. They’ll kill you.” And Phillip Andrew’s reply was “Kawawa ang bayan” (Pity the country).

Senate Report No.800 dismissed both Navy and NBI whitewash with blunt findings. “Pestano did not kill himself aboard the BRP Bacolod City… He was bludgeoned unconscious and then shot to death somewhere else in the vessel. His body was moved and laid on the bed where it was found.”

“The clear absence of blood spatters, bone fragments or other human tissues is physical evidence more eloquent than a hundred witnesses,” the Senate report observed. “It is impossible for a person who has just sustained a fatal head injury to walk from some other place in his room, lie on his bed and drop dead…”

“He was killed by an assailant, necessarily aboard the BRP Bacolod City”, before it docked at the Navy HQ on Roxas Boulevard. The attempt to make it appear Pestano killed himself inside his stateroom was so deliberate and elaborate that one person could not have accomplished it by himself.”

Then who did? Lt. (JG) Carlito Amoroso (PMA class 1994), who moonlighted as close-in security for Admiral Carranza? “Strong evidence linked him to the crime as the possible gunman,” then Sen. Fred Lim declared in a privilege speech last year. Amoroso was not a crew member of BRP Bacolod City. Was he riding shotgun for those controversial logs earlier? And drugs?

Amoroso became scarce since then. Did he resign? Or has he been tucked into a low-profile post? The Navy isn’t keen on locating, much less asking him questions. “To date, as like the others, (Amoroso) got off scot-free,” now Manila Mayor Lim fumed.

Ensign Joselito Colico? He admitted before the Senate that he removed the magazine from the .45 caliber pistol and wiped off fingerprints. This tampered with evidence, Lim protested. Why was Colico “not even charged administratively?” Good question. No answers.

Then, there was P02 Zosimo Villanueva. “Was” is past tense. This officer tipped Pestano on illegal cargo, specifically about “the concealed bulk of illegal drugs (hidden) in the more than 20 sacks of rice cargoes aboard the ship,” Lim revealed.

A week after Pestano’s murder, Villanueva was sent on mission with three other companions. They “were allegedly washed away in a sea mishap. All were miraculously rescued - except Villanueva.” Only a blood-stained speedboat was found.

Ensign Alvin Parone knew who were involved in the mafia-style operations. He was scheduled to spill the beans to Pestano’s parents. Was is past tense. Killers apparently got to him first. “He was also a victim of an unsolved murder,” Lim said.

PO3 Fidel Tagaytay happened to man BRP Bacolod City’s radio, when Pestano was murdered. “Alam ko po marami siyang alam kasi siya ang duty operator (I know he knew a lot because he was duty operator), wife Leonila wrote to then Defense Secretary Avelino Cruz.

Is Tagaytay also past tense? He vanished when summoned to testify. Wife Leonila’s efforts to trace his whereabouts are brushed off by the bland claim that Tagaytay is “absent without leave.” Is the radio operator then a desaparecido, like activist Jonas Burgos? His wife Leonila feels the same anguish as Editha, Jonas Burgos’ mother.

“It’s a waste of time to investigate further,” the notorious Ombudsman Aniano Desierto told Pestano’s parents, Felipe and Evelyn. Corruption had “sanctuarized” murder. Impunity saw to that.

There is, however, a special viciousness when “treachery masquerades in the same uniform and comrades in arms become the unseen foes,” Lim noted. It devours the country’s brightest, bravest and best - like Ensign Phillip Andrew Pestano. Kawawa ang bayan.

Tags: juan mercado, phillip pestano