Featured Post

MABUHAY PRRD!

Thursday, February 2, 2012

A Cold Case No More

Landscape
By GEMMA CRUZ ARANETA

MANILA, Philippines — Inextricably related to this cold case (the alleged suicide ofyoung Ensign Phillip Pestano on 27 September 1995) are the mysterious deaths of three of his friends, namely, Ensign Alvin Parone, PO3 Fidel H. Tagaytay, and PO2 Zosimo Villanueva. In an incisive privilege speech (15 August 2005) then Senator Alfredo S. Lim revealed that, “PO2 Zosimo Villanueva was the one who informed Phillip Pestano of the alleged illegal cargo on board their ship [BRP ‘Bacolod City’], specifically about the concealed bulk of illegal drugs in the more than twenty (20) sacks of rice on board. It was the same PO2 Villanueva who was thereafter sent on a mission with three other companions who were all allegedly washed away in a sea mishap but who were miraculously rescued, minus Villanueva.”

Senator Lim continued his astounding expose: “Ensign Alvin Parone was also a victim of an unsolved murder just like PO3 Fidel. H. Tagaytay, PN of the Visayas command, who mysteriously disappeared immediately after he was summoned to report to the Provost Marshall, GHQ, on 10 June 1997, to shed light on the death ofEnsign Pestano. His only misfortune was that he was the ship’s duty radio operator at the time of the incident.” Two days before he was killed Ensign Parone had decided to tell the Pestanos what he knew about Phillip’s death.

Two handwriting experts of the National Bureau of Investigation had clashed swords over the alleged suicide note of Ensign Pestano. Mr. Eliodoro Constantino compared specimen handwritings of Ensign Pestano with that of the suicide note and concluded that both were written by one and same person. However, his colleague Major Redencion Caimbon strongly contested Constantino’s view, and suffered the consequences of stubbornly upholding the contrary position. Then, two American forensic handwriting experts came into the picture and offered their services pro bono.

Mr. Ron Rice of international renown arrrived with Mr Wayne Hill; the latter was famous for testimonies instrumental in solving baffling cases like that of serial killer Ted Bundy, the murdered White House counsel Vincent Foster, Oklahoma bomber Timothy Mc. Veigh, even O. J. Simpson’s. Significantly, both Rice and Hill concluded that the handwriting of the suicide note was not Ensign Pestano’s, thus upholding the position of Major Redencion Caimbon.

Finally, after seventeen frustrating years, the case has been reopened. There was a press conference at the Manila City Hall with Mayor Alfredo S. Lim, the parents and sister of the late ensign and former Major now Col. Redencion Caimbon, Let us hope the brutal murder of the valiant 23-year old Ensign Phillip Pestano, and that of his friends, is a cold case no more.

No comments: