WHO THE HELL KILLED NINOY: SCIENCE VS. LEGAL EXPERTS

Two forensic scientists take to task the Supreme Court and former Chief Justice Art Panganiban, on the murder of Ninoy Aquino:

This is in reaction to former Chief Justice Artemio Panganiban’s March 15 column.

We are inviting readers, who are curious to find out why the nature of a bone in the skull figures prominently in the Aquino-Galman “double murder,” to read our forensic review of the case: “Death on the Tarmac: The Credible View.” In that report, we painstakingly proved that only Rolando Galman (not any one of the military escorts on the stairway) could have fired, on the tarmac, the shot that killed Ninoy Aquino.

The bone in question is the “Petrous part of the temporal bone.” The bone is so named because it is a hard compact bone, in fact the densest bone of the skull. (“Petrous” as in Peter the Rock, or petrified.)

It is understandable for the former chief justice to defend the Court that blocked the reopening of the case during his tenure as chief justice. He also happens to be the “author” of (or, more correctly, the compiler of essays in) a book titled “The Bio-age Dawns on the Judiciary,” which pompously trumpets to the world that the Philippine judiciary has entered the Modern Age of Science.

But for him and his scientifically uninformed/ misinformed Supreme Court colleagues to insist that what Justice Regino Hermosisima Jr. pontificated on about the Petrous bone (that “it is in fact a mere spongy bone akin to cartilage”), even after the error had been pointed out in our forensic report (copies of which were submitted to and hopefully read by the Supreme Court justices), betrays an obdurate and unforgivable ignorance or irremediable idiocy.

Instead of conferring with Hermosisima, Panganiban could have consulted a standard anatomy textbook or a reputable anatomy professor from a respected medical institution (even from the school where he finished his law degree) for a true enlightenment on the subject. Or more directly, he could have used his fingers to fully measure and feel this bone to find out if it had the consistency, softness and texture of a spongy substance or cartilage.

If Panganiban can cite a textbook or an anatomy professor that describes this bone as a “mere spongy substance, akin to cartilage,” we are willing to have all copies of our report burned.

In every forensic training seminar that we participate in, we never fail to point out that one of the weak pillars of our criminal justice system are judges (at all levels of the judiciary) who are either scientifically uninformed and cannot, or won’t—for (only God knows!) whatever non-judiciary considerations—appreciate the earnest efforts of forensic scientists.

—JEROME B. BAILEN,
UP associate professor (ret.),
forensic anthropologist;
BENITO E. MOLINO, MD,
International Human Rights
forensic consultant

Also, Who  Masterminded Ninoy’s Murder? by Artemio Pangilinan.

This is the Supreme Court resolution that says, sorry guys, it’s not Galman, we can’t be wrong!

Now, someone should hail these scientists for contempt of court.  “… obdurate and unforgivable ignorance or irremediable idiocy”… and “… judges (at all levels of the judiciary) who are either scientifically uninformed and cannot, or won’t—for (only God knows!) whatever non-judiciary considerations—appreciate the earnest efforts of forensic scientists”— hahaha, that’s some mighty loud slaps going left and right on the Mighty Infallibles’ faces until they turn blue, if you ask me.

I wrote So, who the hell killed Ninoy? I said, if indeed, Galman did it, you couldn’t imagine how damning and far-reaching the consequences would be especially to some treasured myths nurtured over the years.  So, rather than  face up to this unbearable truth, we’d better keep the lie.

For another,  aren’t we a nation in worship of the law profession?   (You just take a look at the yearly madness and extravaganza that attend the bar exams and the excessive attention and deference paid to lawyers, no matter if a lawless crook, or to students of law, no matter if  barely able to construct a sentence, let alone, carry an argument— if you do not see a reflection of a crude absurdity in our midst.)    The sciences? In the Philippines, who cares about a scientist if you can have a lawyer in the family? ( Btw, the result of the Bar is just out.  Start counting banners proclaiming to the world, this so and so schmoe just passed the Bar.  I wish they would care to indicate their respective scores so we will truly feel at peace and not assaulted by these).   In the case at bar, why do lawyers care about what the sciences have to say when they very well know they hold most everyone in awe of their “superior” minds?  You get the title Justice appended to your name, won’t your confidence soar a hundredfold more? Panganiban et al could well be saying: “We are the lawyers here,  people.  We hold the key.  Science, my ass!”  And we let it go because lawyers are simply the greatest in these parts and scientists are those smelly, unkempt, unappealing nerdy types clueless about and out of sync with the real world.