Of heels and bridges
September 2, 2007 – 7:35 amby Juan L. Mercado
Cebu Daily News/Philippine Daily Inquirer
August 14, 2007
Does a culture of impunity flog the Ombudsman for Military Affairs to refrigerate, for over 653 days now, the reinvestigation of the murder of a 23-year-old ensign who blew the whistle on naval vessels smuggling drugs and illegal logs?
“In February and June, the Military Ombudsman informed us the case is still under preliminary investigation,” say Felipe and Evelyn Pestaño, parents of the slain officer. “Ombudsman Merceditas Gutierrez has not agreed to see us.”
In January 1998, the Senate committees on justice and national defense urged the Ombudsman: reinvestigate the killing of Ensign Phillip Andrew Pestaño. “Identify the persons who participated in the deliberate attempt to make it appear that Pestaño killed himself inside his stateroom” in BRP Bacolod City.
An honor student at Ateneo and the Philippine Military Academy, Pestaño refused to authorize the loading of 14,000 board feet of illegal logs. He denounced peddling of bunker fuel. The ensign questioned shipment of “rice sacks” that stashed more than a ton of shabu, then Senator Fred Lim added.
Pestaño committed suicide, the Navy claimed the very day the ensign died. No, Senate said after intensive investigation. He was bludgeoned then shot to death by some persons abroad BRP Bacolod City as it zigzagged from Cavite to Manila. The quartermaster logbook thereafter vanished.
Pestaño’s parents startled the Ombudsman with a clear copy of the logbook entry. It showed: the ship sailed west, towards Corregidor, instead of to the west, where Roxas Boulevard lay. On the day Pestaño was killed, it took the ship an hour and a half to sail from Cavite to Roxas Boulevard - normally a 25-minute trip.
The less-admired Ombudsman Aniano Desierto balked: “It’d only be a waste of time and money, considering the physical evidence has been tampered with and the lapse of time.”
Justice and national interest required reinvestigation, insisted Pestaño’s Ateneo and PMA classmates. And the parents filed charges on October 27, 2005 against seven aboard BRP Bacolod City. Of the seven, four have vanished.
Police Officer 1 Carlito Amoroso “retired.” Letters to this PMA graduate are returned with the post office notation: “Address Unknown.” He was not an “organic member” of the ship’s crew, e.g. a hitchhiker. Yet, “strong evidence linked him to the crime as possible gunman, Lim said.
Lieutenant Junior Grade Joselito Colico unloaded the gun and wiped it. He should answer charges of tampering with evidence. But “inquiries with the Navy revealed that Lieutenant Colico has been missing for more than a year.” The ship’s executive officer, Lieutenant Ruben Roque, skipped to the US.
“Many respondents have been promoted and traveled abroad as if nothing happened at all,” Pestaño’s parents observe. “Their common answer is: the Senate cannot do anything to them, much less their careers.” Nonetheless, they press on to vindicate the name of a son.
This injustice and the Ombudsman’s patent reluctance, once again, underscore that this is a country that rewards its heels and salvages heroes. Indeed “every society gets the criminals it deserves,” the late Robert Kennedy once said. “And it is equally true that every community gets the kind of law enforcement it insists on.”
A country that fails to secure justice for its citizens compensates for its moral vacuum. One way is name polishing, as the northern Mindanao controversy over a new P2.2-billion span that crosses the Agusan River shows.
The President’s partisans want to dub the 907-meter span as “Diosdado Macapagal Bridge.” “No way, Jose,” snap Butuan citizens who’ve launched an e-mail campaign to gather 100,000 signatures. “The overwhelming sentiment among us Butuanons is to name it the Butuan Bridge,” says scientist and Pew Fellow Jurgenne Primavera.
A preliminary weeklong e-mail survey in July found 48 percent of 346 votes opted for “Butuan Bridge.” They’re bucking a tide. Malacañang has already tacked “Macapagal” shingles on every major project within reach.
Thirteen now sport “Macapagal” signboards: bridges in Marikina, Bacnotan (in La Union), Solong (San Jose, Antique) and Masiu (Lanao del Sur). In addition, there’s the Macapagal Boulevard in Pasay and Parañaque cities, not to mention the Macapagal International Airport in Pampanga, Ulas flyover in Davao, hospitals in Antique and Cavite, terminals in Bataan, Surigao and Port Area, Manila.
Is Butuan next? Forget delicadeza. The President accepted the resolution of an obliging Butuan City Sangguniang Panglungsod to name the new bridge after dear old Dad. But as Fedlina Hunt, who now resides in the United Kingdom, protested: “As the bridge is in Butuan, it is apposite to name it Butuan Bridge. Unless this is an exercise for the gloriafication (sorry about the pun) of the Macapagal name.”
“Think of famous bridges: Brooklyn, Golden Gate, London, Sydney Harbour, writes Jennifer Michelle Flores Navarra-Divinagracia. It’s become a Filipino trait to name public structures after dead (sometimes even living) relatives. Please. Enough already.”
“I suggested Butuan Bridge because of the Kingdom of Butuan (that existed) long before El Rey Felipe de España was born,” says Margareth Riego de Dios.
“What’s in a name?” Juliet asked Romeo. Quite a lot - if your name, for example, is Joseph Estrada but you sign as Jose Velarde. That’s the issue about this bridge over troubled waters.
Tags: juan mercado, phillip pestano