MANILA, Philippines — Although the handwriting experts were both from the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), they  had contending conclusions.  Mr. Eliodoro Constantino insisted that the suicide note and specimens of the handwriting of Ensign Phillip Pestano  were “written by one and the same person” while Col. Redencion Caimbon held her ground  that it was a hoax. However, there were other attendant circumstances that begged the reopening of the 16-year-old cold case.

Allow me to lift from then Senator Alfredo S. Lim’s privilege speech (15 August 2005): The dead ensign’s hands bore no traces of powder burns. The trajectory of the bullet was downward not upward which is normally the case in suicides. The fatal gun was in an “abnormal position.” Two bullets instead of one were fired as indicated by the bullet holes and number of used bullets. There were no splotches of blood, no bone fragments or brain matter, or other human tissues on the wall. Alarmingly, there were deliberate efforts to suppress vital evidence,  and key witnesses were nowhere to be found.

A certain Ensign Joselito Colico had admitted to removing the magazine from the alleged suicide gun and wiping it clean of fingerprints. Yet, he was not charged not even administratively by the Military Ombudsman. Strong evidence linked a certain Carlito Amoroso to the crime as the possible gunman but at the time of Senator Alfredo Lim’s privilege speech, the suspect was still at large.

After conducting investigations, the Senate concluded that Ensign Phillip Pestano definitely did not commit suicide but was brutally murdered not in the  stateroom that he had shared with his buddies  but somewhere else in the vessel BRP Bacolod City” and that his body was moved, “then laid on the bed where it was found.” The 48-page Senate report also said: “The attempt to make it appear that Pestano killed himself inside his stateroom was so deliberate and elaborate that one person could not have accomplished it by himself.”

Surprisingly, PNP Medico Legal Examiner Dr. Owen Lebaquin broke his silence and divulged that  Pestano’s autopsy revealed that the righteous young officer was  bludgeoned, rendered unconscious, and then shot at the right temple and that a laceration on the ear could not have been self-inflicted. Dr. Lebaquin’s findings were corroborated by American Forensic Examiners Wayne Hill and Ron Rise. The plot began to thicken, more next week. (gemma601@yahoo.com)