PDI columnist fooled by his source

IN HIS March 22 column, Juan Mercado wrote as if he knew everything about the Pestaño case. This case has gone through several investigations over 15 years, and all probes came up with the same conclusion: suicide. The Western Police District and the National Bureau of Investigation declared the case as suicide in 1995, and when it became a controversy, the Philippine National Police conducted its own investigation, which affirmed the same findings in 1997.
Mercado was fooled by his source regarding the alleged mysterious death of Ensign Alvin Parrone. He was made to believe that Parrone contacted Philip’s sister, saying he wanted “to tell what really happened to Philip.” The truth of the matter was that Parrone died of cancer. He was first confined at the Cavite Naval Hospital, then at V. Luna Memorial Medical Center, and lastly at the National Kidney Institute in 1996.

Not one of Parrone’s family and classmates ever cried foul play. His sisters Constancia and Sarah executed an affidavit in 1997 stating: “After our brother died, the Pestaños came to us and said that during a visit to him (Alvin) when we were not present, he (our brother) told them that had the Navy not been supporting him he would have sung already. This is something that we cannot believe to be true …”

Rep. Antonio Cuenco authored a House resolution to investigate the case and said “that really the crux of the matter lies on the genuineness or the fakery of the alleged suicide note. If the suicide note is found to be genuine, then the conclusion is that he committed suicide…”

Because of the controversial findings made by Senior Insp. Redencion Caimbon, the PNP formed a seven-man panel of document examiners and ruled with finality that the suicide note was authentic. Subsequently, the House discontinued its probe, without coming up with any committee report.

The Senate, however, came up with a committee report declaring the case as homicide without even resolving the authenticity of the suicide note despite its order that the Pestaños should exchange the standards used by Senior Inspector Caimbon with Eliodoro Constantino of the NBI. The Pestaños did not comply with the order.

The Ombudsman’s resolution dismissing the case cited that the Pestaños questioned the reliability of Dr. Raquel Fortun’s findings, claiming respondent Colico paid her a huge sum of money to conclude that Philip committed suicide. Knowing Fortun’s advocacy for truth and justice, we say this is a big lie.

Joseph Goebbels, the propaganda minister of Hitler in 1933, said: “If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it.” For over 15 years, because of the one-sided news reports “inspired” by the Pestaños, this typical case of suicide has come to be seen as a case of homicide. We firmly believe that the truth will always prevail, for the truth is the mortal enemy of a lie.

—CAPT. RICARDO M. ORDOÑEZ, PN (Ret.), [email protected]