Ens. Phillip Andrew A. Pestaño Website

The Only Hope for the Philippines by Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J.

THE ONLY HOPE FOR THE PHILIPPINES
by Father James B. Reuter, S.J.

The signs are clear.  Our nation is headed towards an irreversible path of economic decline and moral decadence.  It is not for lack of effort.

We’ve seen many men and women of integrity in andout of government, NGOs, church groups and people’s organizations devote themselves to the task of nation-building, often times against insurmountable odds.

Burt not even two people revolutions, bloodless as they may be, have made a dent in reversing this trend.  At best, we have moved one step forward, but three steps backward.

We need a force far greater than our collective efforts, as a people, can ever hope to muster.  It is time to move the battle to the spiritual realm.

It’s time to claim God’s promise of healing of the land of His people.

It’s time to gather God’s people on its knees to pray for the economic recovery and moral reformation of our nation.  is prayer really the answer?

Before you dismiss this as just another rambling of a religious fanatic, I’d like you to consider some lessons we can glean from history.

England’s ascendancy to world power was preceded by the Reformation, a spiritual revival fueled by intense prayers.  The early American settlers built the foundation that

would make it the most powerful nation today—a strong faith in God and a disciplined prayer life.  Throughout its history, and especially at its major turning points, waves of revival and prayer movement swept across the land.

In recent times, we see Korea as a nation experiencing revival and in the process producing the largest Christian church in the world today, led by Rev. Paul Yongi Cho.

No wonder it has emerged as a strong nation when other economies around it are

faltering.

Even from a purely secular viewpoint, it makes a lot of sense. For where there is genuine humbling and seeking of God through prayer, moral reformation necessarily follows.  And this in turn will lead to general prosperity.

YES, we believe prayer can make a differnec.

It’s our only hope.

TODAY, WE LAUNCH THIS EMAIL BRIGADE, TO INFORM FILIPINOS FROM ALL OVER THE WORLD TO PRAY, AS A PEOPLE, FOR THE ECONOMIC RECOVERY AND MORAL REFORMATION OF OUR NATION.  WE DO NOT ASK FOR MUCH.  WE ONLY ASK FOR 5 MINUTES OF YOUR TIME IN A DAY, TO FORWARD THIS EMAIL TO YOUR CLOSE FRIENDS AND RELATIVES.

This is the kind of unity which can make a big difference.  Of course, if you feel strongly

as I do. about the power of prayer, you can be more involved by starting your own prayer

group or prayer center.

We have tried people power twice; in both cases, it fell short.  Maybe it’s time to try prayer power.  God never fails.  Is there hope?

YES! We can rely on God’s promise, but we have to do ourpart.  If we humble ourselves and pray as a people, God will heal our land.

By God’s grace, we may yet see a better future for our children.  God bless and God save our country.

“If my people who are called by My name will humble themselves and pray, and seek my face, and turn from the wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sins, and will heal their land. (2 Chronicles 7:14)”.

Tags: fr. james b. reuter, phillip pestano

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Justice at 3 A.M. by Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J.

Justice at 3 A.M.
by Fr. James B. Reuter, S.J.

*Note: This is the e-mail prayer brigade initiated by Fr. Reuter for Phillip.

Phillip Andrew A. Pestaño graduated from the Ateneo de Manila High School in 1989, entered the Philippine Military Academy, and became an Ensign in the Philippine Navy in 1993. He was assigned as cargo master, on a Navy ship.

He discovered that the cargo being loaded onto his vessel included logs that were cut down illegally, were carried to the ship illegally, and were destined to be sold, illegally. Then there were 50 sacks of flour, which were not flour, but shabu - worth billions. Literally, billions. And there were military weapons which were destined for sale to the Abu Sayyaf.

He felt that he could not approve this cargo.

Superior officers came to him and said: “Please! Be reasonable! This is big business. It involves many important people. Approve this cargo.” But Phillip could not, in conscience, sign approval.

Then his parents received two phone calls, saying: “Get your son off that ship! He is going to be killed!” When Phillip was given leave at home, his family begged him not to go back. Their efforts at persuasion continued until his last night at home, when Phillip was already in bed.

His father came to him and said: “Please, son, resign your commission. Give up your military career. Don’t go back. We want you alive. If you go back to that ship, it will be the end of you!” But Phillip said to his father: “Kawawa ang bayan!” And he went back to the ship.

The scheduled trip was very brief - from Cavite to Roxas Boulevard - it usually took only 45 minutes. But on September 27, 1995 , it took one hour and a half. When the ship arrived at Roxas Boulevard, Ensign Pestaño was dead.

The body was in his stateroom, with a pistol, and a letter saying that he was committing suicide. The family realized at once that the letter was forged. They tried desperately for justice, carrying the case right up to the Senate.

The Senatorial Investigation Committee examined all the evidence, carefully. Then they issued an official statement, saying among other things: Ensign Phillip Pestaño did not commit suicide. He was murdered. He was shot through the head, somewhere outside of his stateroom, and the body was carried to his room and placed in the bed. The crime was committed by more than one person. In spite of these findings, by the Senate, the family could not get justice. The case is still recorded, by the Navy, as suicide. For 12 years they have been knocking at the doors of those in power, to no avail. Now they realize that they should knock on the door of Him who said: “Knock, and it shall be opened to you. Ask and you shall receive. Seek, and you shall find.”

So they are asking all of the friends of Phillip from the Ateneo, from the PMA, friends of the family - including the girl he was engaged to marry - to say this prayer: Lord, we know that Phillip is safe with you, and will be safe forever, because he gave up his life, as You gave up Your life - for justice. If it is Your will, please let the truth be known of his heroic courage and strength and love of country. Let justice be rendered here on earth. But if it is not Your will that justice be rendered here, give each of us the grace to live and die as he did - following in Your footsteps.

And at the last judgment, Lord, when all that is hidden will be known, let Phillip be seen as he really is - a brave young man who gave his life for honesty, truth, and justice.”

* * *

Phillip Pestaño died at the age of 24. He was scheduled to be married in January of 1996, four months after he was murdered.

He was a martyr. A martyr is one who dies for the faith or for a Christian virtue. Phillip died for a Christian virtue - justice. It is not likely that he will ever be canonized, but he takes his place among the Unknown Saints.

Some military men are killed in battle. They are given a hero’s burial. But Phillip died for a much deeper cause - he was trying to preserve the integrity of our Armed Forces. He died out of loyalty to the Philippines, in an effort to keep the oath that he made when he graduated from the Military Academy.

Graft and corruption are the curse of this nation. But when they take root in the heart of our Armed Forces, they threaten our existence as an independent, democratic country.

The family of Phillip Pestaño is doing the right thing. They are turning to God. They are praying that justice will be administered here, in our country, in our day. But if this is not God’s will, then let us at least try to preserve the ideal of integrity in every mind and heart and soul.

Let’s forward this message to every freedom-loving Pinoy in our list. Thank you.

Tags: 3 am, fr. james b. reuter, phillip pestano

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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

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Of heels and bridges

by 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

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Handwriting Analysis

Phillip’s alleged suicide note and comparing it with his usual/normal handwriting and signature (click on images to view their larger versions).

In the comparison chart (below) done by Col. Pedro Elvas, he noted at least 16 differences noticeable against the signature of the alleged notes and Phillip’s standards.

Tags: alleged suicide note, col. elvas, handwriting analysis, phillip pestano

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Test & Experiment: On Dent/Hole and Bullet Deformities

• “BULLET FIRED THROUGH A PILLOW AND HIT THE BOTTOM PLATE OF A STEEL DRUM.”  NOTICE THE SLIGHT DEFORMITY OR THE SHAPE OF THE SLUG AS IT SNUGGLY FIT ON THE DRUM BOTTOM STEEL PLATE.
• THIS WOULD SHOW THE POSSIBLE CAUSE OF THE BULLET HOLE FOUND IN ENS. PESTANO’S ROOM AND THE ALLEGED SLUG THAT WENT THROUGH HIS HEAD AND SUBSEQUENTLY FOUND IN THE ROOM.

This bullet slug was a result of an experiment conducted by forensic doctors and two (2) ballisticians. The slug was fired at a steel drum about 1/8″ thick using a gun that was fired through a pillow.

The bullet slug recovered with strong similarities with that bullet mark and slug found on the floor at Phillip’s feet.

The actual alleged slug recovered from the scene appears to have been fired also from a pillow which in a previous photograph, a fiber like matter was still attached to. This would only confirm that the slug found in Phillip’s cabin was never fired into Phillip’s head.

In this regard, the bullet followed a normal trajectory from the muzzle of the gun, deflected upon hitting the pillow and causing the bullet to tumble in flight. It finally hit the target sideways as shown above.

Thus, the bullet mark and slug were again part of the fabricated evidence to show proof that Phillip committed suicide.

Tags: bullet, dent hole, phillip pestano

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The Shape of the Entry Wound

Dr. Lebaquin and Dr. Lagonera testified in the Senate hearing that the shape of the entry wound was oval.  This finding of both medico-legal experts was very significant.  First, the direction of the bullet path from the muzzle of the gun to the entry wound was not directly perpendicular with respect to the head but oblique and diagonal.  Secondly and more important, the wound was not due to a close contact fire. The explanation of this was that in close contact fire, the entry wound was stellite in shape. The reason being the explosive force of the gunpowder combination destroys in all directions the tissues surrounding the entry wound.  It was not the bullet slug producing the stellite shape of the entry wound in contact fire but the tremendous combustible force of the gunpowder.  In cases of the non-contact fire, the shape of the bullet slug coming from the gun forms the entry wound.  These findings belie therefore any theory of contact fire and therefore undermine any evidence supporting suicide.

(By medico-legal panel’s memorandum to the Senate committee)

Note: picture was a test experiment showing the different shape of entry wound for contact firing, near contact and distance of at least six (6) inches and further.

Tags: entry wound, lagonera, lebaquin, phillip pestano

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Test & Experiment: Blood & Tissue Spatter using .45 Cal. Pistol model 1911

 

The experiment used a live hog fixed and secured at about a distance of 6 ft. to the target made of galvanized sheet 1/8″ thick and covered with a plastic wall vinyl paper (to resemble to as close as possible to Phillip’s wall in the cabin).

Upon firing (at the pig’s temple) the following results were noted:

1. The bullet flattened like a mashed mushroom.
2. Blood & brain tissues and bone skull fragment were propelled into the target area. (See picture above)

Note: while blood & other brain & bone fragments were scattered all over the area of experiment (about the size of Phillip’s cabin), towards the target, on the wall & floor and from the shooter’s hand & T-shirt.

Tags: blood spatter, forensic, phillip pestano

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Test Fire: Flattened Slug

 

These are some of the results of an experiment on bullets slugs fired into a pig’s head and into a steel drum sheet (1/8″ thickness). The steel was covered with plastic vinyl wallpaper that approximated the wall in Phillip’s cabin.

As one could see in the picture, the bullet slug that was found in Phillip’s cabin had very little dent.  Compared to the photograph above, the slug must look like a flattened mushroom.

Forensic investigator definitely ruled that the slug found in Phillip’s cabin was planted along with other manufactured evidences allegedly discovered in his room.

Tags: flattened slug, phillip pestano

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Test & Experiment: Blood and Tissue Spatter

(Shooter firing a .45 Cal. Pistol on the pig’s head)

There was a steel drum bottom covered with plastic vinyl wallpaper to approximate ship’s wall material about six (6) feet away from the target.

The walls and floors were covered with Manila paper to establish the spatter after the shooter fired the gun. The barrel of the gun almost touched the live pig’s temple or in forensic parlance, it was a simulation OF A CLOSE CONTACT FIRE IN WHICH THE INVESTIGATING AGENCIES CLAIMED WAS THE POSITION OF THE SHOOTER. It was suicide on account of that factor. The object of the test was to establish whether or not at close contact fire would propel the blood & brain tissues toward the target located six (6) ft. away from the live pig.

(Shooter had fired a .45 cal. Pistol aimed on the pig’s head)

The pig’s head jerked on upwards and away or at a direction towards the simulated wall target at an instant upon firing the gun.

The test only proved that the .45 cal. Pistol upon the shooters firing, the gun’s recoil was backwards and the barrel positioning upwards in split second time.  The test was simulated for close contact on the pig’s temple area.  This showed Phillip’s two contusions found on his head was not caused by the muzzle imprint of the gun or from a stabilizer as the investigating agencies claimed.

The forensic & ballistic consultants were gun experts themselves testified during a Senate hearing that the contusion was ante mortem, meaning it was inflicted prior to the gun’s firing.  Forensic doctors also reported to the Senate committee that Phillip was shot after he was pistol whipped and could have been already incapacitated when the fatal shot was fired on his head.

Tags: blood, phillip pestano, pig, shot, spatter

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