COTABATO CITY (Mindanao Examiner / 20 Feb) – Philippine police on Tuesday formed a task force to investigate the murder of a journalist in the restive southern island of Mindanao.
Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, head of police forces in the Muslim autonomous region in Mindanao, said he ordered the creation of Task Force Pastolero, named after the victim, Hernani Pastolero, who was shot by two gunmen Monday in his home in Sultan Kudarat town in Shariff Kabunsuan province.
“We have created the Task Force Pastolero to investigate the killing. We want this case resolved as soon as possible,” Goltiao said in an interview.
No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack, police said, but Goltiao appealed to witnesses to come out and help in the investigation.
“We know there are witnesses, but they are afraid to come out. We have suspects already. We believed the killing has something to do with land conflict or it could be work-related,” Goltiao said without further elaborating.
Relatives of the slain journalist, editor of the weekly tabloid Lightning Courier, said he had no threats on his life. “We don’t know the real motive of the killing and we leave everything to the police to determine the murder of my Uncle Nani,” one nephew, Joel Pastolero, said.
Last year, at least a dozen journalists were killed by hired assassins. Pastolero was the first media man killed this year, according to the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines.(Mindanao Examiner)
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