The legal maxim \u201cJustice delayed is justice denied\u201d can be traced all the way back to the Magna Carta, enacted in 1215, which specifically \u201cdisallowed the selling of justice, or its denial or delay.\u201d More than 900 years after English feudal lords forced this Great Charter on their king and laid the foundation for western jurisprudence, the concept still remains alien to the Philippines where delayed justice is often the best justice that Filipinos can hope for.<\/p>\n
The children of Bubby Dacer and Emmanuel Corbito have been waiting for justice for more than 11 years since November 24, 2000 when operatives of the Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Task Force (PAOCTF) \u2014 then under the command of Gen. Panfilo Lacson \u2014 abducted, tortured and executed Dacer and Corbito.<\/p>\n
Their hopes were raised this past week when Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales reversed the actions of her predecessors and filed murder charges against 10 Philippine Navy officers for their roles in the execution of Navy Ensign Philip Andrew Pesta\u00f1o on September 27, 1995.<\/p>\n
I first wrote about the Pesta\u00f1o case on December 10, 2007 (\u201cDeath of an Ensign\u201d) after reading the moving plea for justice written by Jesuit educator Fr. James Reuter (\u201cJustice at 3 A.M.\u201d). The priest wrote about this graduate of Ateneo de Manila who entered the Philippine Military Academy and graduated as an Ensign in the Philippine Navy in 1993. He was then assigned as cargo master on board the BRP Bacolod City.<\/p>\n
Sometime in 1995, Pesta\u00f1o discovered that \u201cthe 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. There were also 50 sacks of flour, which were not flour, but shabu (methamphetamine) \u2013 worth billions. And there were military weapons which were destined for sale to the Abu Sayyaf.\u201d As cargo master of the ship, Pesta\u00f1o refused to approve the illegal cargo despite orders from his superior officers that he do so.<\/p>\n
\u201cPesta\u00f1o\u2019s parents received two phone calls, saying: \u201cGet your son off that ship! He is going to be killed!\u201d When Phillip was given leave at home, his family begged him not to go back. <\/p>\n
\u201cHis father came to him and said: \u201cPlease, son, resign your commission. Give up your military career. Don\u2019t go back. We want you alive. If you go back to that ship, it will be the end of you!\u201d But Phillip said to his father: \u201cKawawa ang bayan! (Pity the country)\u201d And he went back to the ship.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThe scheduled trip was very brief \u2014 from Cavite to Roxas Boulevard \u2014 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 Pesta\u00f1o was dead.\u201d<\/p>\n
Within 24 hours, the Navy investigators determined that Pesta\u00f1o had committed suicide because a \u201csuicide note\u201d was found in his cabin despite evidence that the note was not in Pesta\u00f1o\u2019s handwriting. As an honor student at Ateneo engaged to be married to the love of his life in a few months, Pesta\u00f1o had no reason take his life.<\/p>\n
After two years of persistent prodding by Pesta\u00f1o\u2019s family, the Philippine Senate conducted an investigation of Pesta\u00f1o\u2019s death in 1997. Witnesses at the Senate hearing testified that before he died, Pesta\u00f1o refused to authorize the loading of 14,000 board feet of illegal hardwood logs in Tawi-Tawi. Over Pesta\u00f1o\u2019s objections, the illegal logs were loaded in Tawi-Tawi and off-loaded in Cavite just before the ship sailed for its home port in Manila following an \u201cunusual dogleg route\u201d that lasted longer than usual.<\/p>\n
After hearing from numerous witnesses, the Senate Report concluded: \u201cPesta\u00f1o 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.\u201d The Senate report observed. \u201cIt 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\u2026\u201d
\n\u201cHe was killed by an assailant aboard the BRP Bacolod City,\u201d before it docked at the Navy HQ on Roxas Boulevard. The attempt to make it appear Pesta\u00f1o killed himself inside his stateroom was so deliberate and elaborate that one person could not have accomplished it by himself.\u201d<\/p>\n
Murder, concluded the Senate committee led by Sen. Marcelo Fernan. Pesta\u00f1o was bludgeoned, shot and his body rigged to appear as a suicide.
\nBut Pesta\u00f1o was not the only murder victim. Petty 0fficer Zosimo Villanueva, the officer who tipped Pesta\u00f1o about \u201cthe concealed bulk of illegal drugs in the more than 20 sacks of rice cargoes aboard the ship,\u201d was dispatched by his superiors on a mission, a week after Pestano\u2019s death, where he mysteriously \u201cwashed away in a sea mishap.\u201d<\/p>\n
Another casualty was Ensign Alvin Parone, the officer who called Pesta\u00f1o\u2019s parents to warn them of plans to kill their son. He was also killed, then Sen. Alfredo Lim said, \u201ca victim of another unsolved murder.\u201d<\/p>\n
Also missing and presumed dead is Petty Officer Fidel Tagaytay who was the duty officer on board Pesta\u00f1o\u2019s ship. When he was summoned to testify before the senate, he disappeared. His wife, Leonila, has been desperately searching for him, begging the authorities to investigate his disappearance. \u201cAbsent without leave\u201d is all the Navy brass will tell her.<\/p>\n
The Senate in 1997 then directed Ombudsman Aniano Desierto, to \u201cidentify the persons who participated in the deliberate attempt to make it appear that Pesta\u00f1o killed himself.\u201d Desierto ignored the Senate\u2019s directions. After he was replaced by Merceditas Gutierrez, the Pesta\u00f1o investigation met with the same, if not greater, indifference as Gutierrez refused to even meet with the parents of Pesta\u00f1o.<\/p>\n
When the parents of Pesta\u00f1o signed an impeachment complaint against Gutierrez, she finally acted. As Raul Pangalangan wrote in his Inquirer column, \u201cShe dismissed it. To add sting to the injury, she served her dismissal order on Pesta\u00f1o\u2019s parents the day after they signed the impeachment complaint against her.\u201d The Pesta\u00f1o family filed a Motion for Reconsideration of the case dismissal by Gutierrez. While the motion was under review, Gutierrez was impeached by the House and she resigned before her Senate trial. So the Pesta\u00f1o motion was acted upon by the new Ombudsman Conchita Carpio-Morales.<\/p>\n
On January 10, 2012, Morales reversed the decision of her predecessor and filed murder charges against 10 navy officers. It is crystal clear that top Philippine Navy officials were involved in smuggling illegal drugs, arms and logs and lining their pockets with vast sums of money from the traffickers they served. They were not going to allow a principled whistleblower like Pesta\u00f1o to stand in the way of their fortunes.<\/p>\n
The 10 officers charged by the Ombudsman with the murder of Pesta\u00f1o may yet disclose the names of the others in the navy chain of command who were involved in the smuggling of illegal contraband and in the murders of Pesta\u00f1o, Villanueva, Parone and Tagaytay.<\/p>\n
\u201cSome military men are killed in battle. They are given a hero\u2019s burial,\u201d Fr. Reuter wrote. \u201cBut Phillip died for a much deeper cause \u2014 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 Philippine Military Academy.\u201d<\/p>\n
There should be statues erected and streets renamed all over the Philippines to honor heroes like Pesta\u00f1o, Villanueva, Parone and Tagaytay. They died for us.<\/p>\n
(Send comments to Rodel50@gmail.com or send them to the Law Offices of Rodel Rodis at 2429 Ocean Avenue, San Francisco, CA 94127 or call 415. 334.7800).<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The legal maxim \u201cJustice delayed is justice denied\u201d can be traced all the way back to the Magna Carta, enacted in 1215, which specifically \u201cdisallowed the selling of justice, or its denial or delay.\u201d More than 900 years after English feudal lords forced this Great Charter on their king and laid the foundation for western […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1749"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1749\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1749"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1749"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.philippinesentinel.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1749"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}