Politicians Face Murder Charges Following Journalist Killings in Philippines

Filipino police have filed murder charges against two local politicians and a police officer over the separate killings of two journalists last week, according to news reports.

“Murder charges had been filed against them based on the strength of testimonies from several witnesses,” national police spokesman Leonardo Espina Espina was quoted as saying. He added that politics could be among the motives for the killings.

Both Desidario Camangyan of Sunshine FM Radio, killed on June 14, and Joselito Agustin, from the radio station DZJC Aksyon Radyo, killed on Wednesday 16 June, were reportedly vocal in covering corruption in the country.

Village head Romeo Antoling and police officer Dennis Jess Lumikid have been charged with the assassination of Camangyan, who was known for his anti-mining and anti-logging editorials. They have not yet been arrested.

Meanwhile, Pacifico Velasco, who was elected vice mayor of Bacarra town in the Ilocos Norte province last month, and his aide Leonardo Banaag have been charged with the killing of Agustin, but they too have yet to be detained.

Media reports also said that three men have been identified and linked to the murder of a third Filipino journalist, Nestor Bedolido, who was shot on June 19. It is believed that the death of Bedolido, a reporter for Kastigador, a weekly newspaper financed by a group of politicians, may also have been politically motivated.

Speaking following the recent developments in the cases, International Press Institute (IPI) Director David Dadge welcomed the investigations but also reiterated his call for an end to impunity in the Philippines.

“These investigations and charges are very welcome in a country now infamous for the impunity enjoyed by the murderers of journalists, but this is not enough. Those responsible for the killings of these three journalists – and the many more who have been killed in the Philippines in recent years – need to be arrested and tried in a court of law.”

The Philippines was the most dangerous country in the world for journalists last year, according to IPI’s Death Watch, accounting for 38 of the 110 journalists killed across the globe in 2009. So far this year three journalists have been killed in the Philippines, making the Asian island nation the joint third most dangerous country for journalists in 2010, alongside Pakistan, and behind Mexico and Honduras. (Louise Hallman - International Press Institute)


Link: http://www.freemedia.at/site-services/singleview-master/5006/

Another media man gunned down: ABS-CBN

MANILA, Philippines - Another member of the media was gunned down Saturday night, marking the first for President Benigno “Noynoy” Aquino III’s administration.

Police said 75-year old radio reporter and columnist Jose Dagio has just finished his dinner in his home in Tuga, Tabuk when an unidentified man gunned him down. He was rushed to the hospital but was declared dead upon arrival.

Dagio is a reporter for the “Radyo Natin Tabuk” and a columnist for a local paper in Kalinga Province.

Police are already investigating whether the killing is related to Dagio’s work. They are not setting aside the possibility however that it could be land-related.

Media groups there are already condemning the incident, the second attack against journalists in the area.

Last month, Radyo ng Bayan anchor Jerome Tabanganay narrowly escaped death when he was shot in front of the radio station.

He is now recovering from his gunshot wound.

Dagio’s death however comes barely a month after 3 media men were killed in separate incidents.

Broadcaster Desiderio Camangyan was shot dead last June 14 by a lone gunman while he was on stage hosting a village singing contest in Mindanao. Less than 24 hours later, radio commentator Lito Agustin was ambushed while on his way home.

A few days after, on June 19, Davao del Sur-based reporter Nestor Bedolido was also gunned down.

The latest incident now brings the death toll to more than 140, most of which happened during President Arroyo’s time.

The former president has been lambasted for such legacy, with the public still reeling from the Maguindanao massacre last November 23. The Philippines is considered one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. (With a report from ABS-CBN Isabela)


Link: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/07/04/10/another-media-man-gunned-down

Police eyeing politician's role in radio journalist's killing: ABS-CBN

LAOAG City, Philippines - Police investigators are eyeing the possible role of a local politician in the murder of radio journalist Joselito Agustin in Ilocos Norte on Tuesday night.

Chief Superintendent Constante Azures, Ilocos regional police director, said intelligence operatives have been deployed around Manila to monitor the movements of the politician.

"The individual I'm referring to is in Manila. There are many intelligence [agents] spread all over Manila," Azures said.

He, however, clarified that he could not yet name the politician or have him arrested because police investigators were still gathering strong evidence to pin the politician to Agustin's killing.

"Apparently right now I cannot just mention the name of that [politician] because we have to firm up all the evidence," he said.

Shooter named

Azures said that the politician's possible role in the killing cropped up after Agustin's surviving nephew, Joseph, positively identified one of their shooters.

Agustin and his nephew were on board a motorcycle when they were ambushed by 2 motorcycle-riding gunmen along the national highway in Barangay Barit, Laoag City on Tuesday night.

The radio journalist died in hospital at 1:15 a.m. Wednesday.

The regional police director said the nephew identified one of the 2 motorcycle-riding gunmen as Mark Leonardo Banaag Jr.

"He is being tracked right now. He went here in Vigan. He cannot move anymore. He better surrender, all police agents are on his track," Azures told reporters.

He said charges are also being prepared against Banaag, who is a close aide of the local politician.

Azures said they are also checking if Banaag is a member of a private army or of a gun-for-hire syndicate operating in the region.

'Partially' closed case

The regional police chief said they are now considering the Agustin case as "partially closed" with the pending filing of charges against Banaag.

He said police are working round-the-clock to determine if the local politician has the motive to order Agustin's killing.

"Nobody has slept yet," he said, adding that police investigators are reviewing records of Agustin's commentaries in the last 3 weeks.

Philippine National Police chief Director-General Jesus Verzosa has ordered Task Force Usig, a police group formed to focus on media and extra-judicial killings, to relentlessly pursue the case "until solved."

Verzosa also wants police units to continue pursuing cases of media killings until the gunmen and masterminds are charged and convicted in court.

Agustin's killing happened less than 24 hours after the murder of 52-year-old radio commentator Desiderio "Jessie" Camangyan of Sunrise FM radio station in Manay town, Davao Oriental.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines said Agustin is the 139th journalist killed since the late President Corazon Aquino came into power in 1986, and the 102nd under the administration of President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo.

International media groups have labeled the Philippines as the "deadliest country" for journalists in 2009, accounting for 37 of 132 journalists and support staff killed or died while working around the world.

The deaths include at least 30 local journalists in a politically motivated massacre of 57 people in Maguindanao province last November 23, 2009. (With a report from Randy Menor, ABS-CBN Laoag)



Link:http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/06/19/10/police-eyeing-politicians-role-radio-journalists-killing

Another radio journalist murdered in Philippines

A radio journalist has been shot dead in the northern Philippines in the second such killing this week. The Philippines is one of the world's most dangerous countries for the media, the Radio France International said.

Lito Agustin, who hosted a program on local radio station dzJC, was ambushed by two men as he and his nephew rode a motorbike in Laoag city late Tuesday, city police chief Superintendent Sterling Blanco said.

Agustin, 37, was killed in a volley of gunfire but his companion was unhurt. The identity of the attackers was not yet known.

Agustin reportedly survived another attack three days before 10 May national elections, when unknown gunmen opened fire on his home in nearby Bacarra town.

Andy Vital, news director for the station's parent outfit Manila Broadcasting, told AFP that Agustin may have been killed to silence him.

"Agustin has been vocal in criticizing graft and corruption in Bacarra," Vital said.

The Laoag shooting was the second attack on a member of the press in the Philippines this week.

Another outspoken radio journalist, Desidario Camangyan, 52, was shot dead while hosting a village singing contest in the southern Philippines on Monday.

He was well known for speaking out against powerful groups involved in illegal logging in and around the southern city of Mati.

Camangon and Agustin were the third and fourth Filipino journalists killed this year, while another journalist was wounded in an attack.

Thirty-three journalists have been killed in the Philippines in 2009, according to the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists.

More than 100 have been killed since President Gloria Arroyo came to power in 2001.

The attackers are rarely caught or punished, and journalists say this culture of impunity is another factor in the high murder rate.(RFI)

Under Oath, Under Threat: Committee to Protect Journalists Special Report

Images: Family photo of Dennis Cuesta and Marcelo Pintac, director of police for General Santos City, who says that apprehending the lead suspect is not as easy as it might seem. And a banner outside Cuesta’s radio station calls for justice. Station manager Alex Josol says he is skeptical of police work in the case.(CPJ Photo / Shawn W. Crispin)

In the Philippines, witnesses to journalist murders face extreme pressures and grave risk. The government’s protection program, while valuable, falls short of ensuring justice.

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines (CPJ / August 19, 2009) - When motorcycle-riding assailants shot and fatally wounded Dennis Cuesta along a busy, tree-lined highway here last year, friend and fellow Radio Mindanao Network reporter Bob Flores was walking by his side.

Flores recalls Cuesta’s body being flung into his own as one gunman fired three times at close range. As Cuesta dropped to the side of the road, a second assailant fired twice more, inflicting head injuries that contributed to the 38-year-old journalist’s death five days later, on August 9, 2008.

In a twist familiar in journalist killings in the Philippines that allegedly involve wayward public officials, local police initially labeled Flores a suspect rather than a witness. “They said I was the No. 1 suspect in the crime,” Flores told CPJ, recounting what police told him in the immediate aftermath of the murder. “I knew then my life would never be the same.”

Within days, Flores received an anonymous text message threatening to harm his family if he testified in the murder case. Fearful but determined not to back down, Flores entered the government’s Witness Protection Program (WPP) on August 15, 2008, and he, his wife, and three young children were placed in a safe house in the capital, Manila.

It was only there and then, in hiding with state-appointed bodyguards more than 1,000 kilometers from the crime scene, that Flores felt secure enough to make a sworn statement to investigators identifying Police Chief Inspector Redempto “Boy” Acharon, first cousin of the mayor of General Santos City, Pedro Acharon Jr., as the second gunman in Cuesta’s killing.

"An unserved arrest warrant"

A local court issued an arrest warrant in April for Redempto Acharon and two other suspects, but as of August, police in this city of 500,000 on the island of Mindanao had yet to carry out the order.

Since the warrant was issued, local journalists said, Acharon has been spotted dining in local restaurants and doing chores at his residence in General Santos City. “He’s not free to roam around, but he doesn’t want to surrender or be arrested until all legal issues are resolved,” said Rogelio Garcia, Acharon’s lawyer, who insisted that his client was not guilty of the crime. “We are exploring all legal avenues to protect the interests of my client.”

Fear of reprisals causes many potential witnesses to look the other way in violence-prone areas of the Philippines, allowing for a culture of impunity to thrive. The island nation placed sixth on CPJ’s 2009 Impunity Index, which ranks countries in which journalists are slain regularly and governments fail to solve the crimes. According to CPJ research, at least 24 Philippine journalists’ murders have gone unsolved over the last decade.

The circumstances surrounding Cuesta’s murder conform to a disturbing pattern in this country: a journalist is shot and killed; local police manipulate the evidence to protect influential people accused in the crime; potential witnesses are intimidated, bought off, or killed so that they never appear in court; the defense employs stalling tactics to break the will of remaining witnesses; the case goes unsolved and the culture of impunity is reinforced.

One key to breaking the cycle of violence, public prosecutors and media freedom advocates say, is better care and protection of witnesses. According to Senior State Prosecutor Leo Dacera, who heads the WPP, about 40 witnesses to media-related killings and another 120 of their family members are now enrolled in the program. That constitutes about a quarter of the nearly 600 people enrolled overall in the program, which covers witnesses to crimes involving criminal syndicates, terrorism, narcotics, and human trafficking. He said the WPP is under-financed, receiving 83 million pesos (US$1.7 million) in 2008.

Philippine President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo has acknowledged the financial shortfall and promised this year to increase the program’s funding to more than 140 million pesos. But the promised funds have not materialized because of political squabbling in the legislature, which has the final say over budget allocations, according to Dacera. The lack of funds, WPP administrators say, makes witnesses vulnerable to threats or bribes intended to have them recant their testimony or simply not appear in court.

The Cuesta case underscores the importance and shortcomings of the Philippine protection program. It also highlights the wider need to transfer murder cases in which local officials are implicated from local courts to more neutral and secure jurisdictions. Public prosecutors in the Cuesta case have already filed a motion with the Supreme Court to transfer the case to Manila, which would allow for better protection of witnesses in the case.

That security, however, comes at a heavy price: Witnesses must be willing to make extraordinary sacrifices in the pursuit of justice. The Manila-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility has recently spotlighted the crucial role of witness protection in combating media killings. “When we got involved with the prosecution of cases, it opened a whole new area of advocacy concerns,” said Melinda DeJesus, the center’s executive director. “These people actually lose their lives. They don’t—and won’t—know life as they knew it before, once they enroll in a witness protection program.”

"Sacrificing their lives"

Flores is a dramatic case in point. He and his family now live in a WPP-maintained safe house that they share with two other witnesses to media-related killings. Barred by the program from keeping a mobile telephone that could be used to trace his whereabouts, Flores has had to stop working as a journalist. Protected by bodyguards, he spends his time watching television, reading books, and worrying about the safety of his children, who attend a nearby school. He regrets that the 8,000 pesos (US$160) he receives monthly from the program is seldom enough to meet his family’s daily needs.

“I have sacrificed my family, my job, everything for justice,” said the 49-year-old Flores, who worked with Cuesta for more than a decade before his murder. Even if Acharon and the other two suspects were eventually convicted in Cuesta’s killing, Flores said he would never feel safe returning to his home in Davao City, about 120 kilometers from General Santos City. “When the case is over, we will have to start a new life somewhere else,” he said.

The meager lifestyle afforded by the WPP has jeopardized the testimony of at least one other witness in the Cuesta case. Referred to by WPP officials as “Lance,” the young male witness said he was riding his motorcycle on the highway when he saw Cuesta’s killing. Local journalists were the first to publish the young man’s statement; he was later located by WPP officials and encouraged to enroll in the program.

But he has twice left WPP safe houses and, according to Department of Justice officials, was on his own somewhere in Mindanao when CPJ researched this report in July. “We’re afraid if we don’t find him first, the other side will,” said Al Calica, a public prosecutor and WPP administrator in central Mindanao who travels with four armed bodyguards of his own. “We’re afraid they’ll either try to buy him off or kill him off.”

If history is a guide, Calica’s concerns are well warranted. The case of radio journalist Edgar Damalerio, who was shot and killed in 2002, demonstrates the danger of serving as a witness in a media killing. Two witnesses in the case were killed before they could testify, and a third survived an assassination attempt. One of the slain witnesses had been first approached with a bribe to dissuade him from testifying. The gunman in the case, former police officer Guillermo Wapile, was finally convicted in 2005 and sentenced to life imprisonment.

In other instances, witnesses are paid by powerful defendants to change their testimony. The ongoing court proceedings in the murder of journalist Herson Hinolan may be a case in point. Two state witnesses who initially identified former Lezo Mayor Alfredo Arcenio as Hinolan’s assassin have since recanted their testimony. One of those witnesses had enrolled in the WPP, but later dropped out of the program. In February, the Visayan Daily Star quoted public prosecutor Dacera as saying that the defense had intimidated and offered money to witnesses. Arcenio disputed the accusation.

Witnesses who stay in the WPP are not necessarily out of harm’s way. When assailants shot and severely wounded radio journalist Nilo Laberes in March, he became a witness in his own case. After identifying one of the gunmen as a protector of a local gambling racket, Laberes took refuge in a WPP safe house—only to have local police overrun the sanctuary to press charges against him for illegal gambling. (In his reports, Laberes had not only exposed the gambling operation, he had accused police of being involved.)

Laberes has since filed a request with the Supreme Court to transfer the attempted murder trial of his assailants from Cagayan de Oro City to Manila. The journalist, who lost a kidney as a result of injuries suffered in the attack, now lives in another WPP-administered safe house. The gambling charges against him were not pursued.

Government attempts to address impunity in journalist killings have fallen short thus far. A national police initiative known as Task Force USIG was created on the orders of President Arroyo in 2006 to investigate and resolve media killing cases. Although task force records show that police have filed charges in most journalist killings since 2001, the records also show authorities have gained convictions in only three cases.

Police Chief Inspector Henry Libay, a task force member, said in an interview with CPJ that the mishandling of evidence and the lack of willing witnesses are the main impediments to success. He said witnesses shy from testifying out of fear of reprisal, lack of financial support, and a distrust of law enforcement.

"You’ll be next"

That lack of trust is apparent in General Santos City, said Alex Josol, the 42-year-old manager of the Radio Mindanao Network station where Cuesta worked and reported until his death. Showing CPJ the exact spot at the side of the road where Cuesta was slain, Josol noted that several coconut vendors were within sight of the murder that day. “They were all gone the next day and never returned,” Josol said. “Nobody wants to testify for fear of retaliation.”

That was also the case when Jo Jo Morales, another reporter at his station, was shot and killed on the way home from work in 2005. “Just like in Cuesta’s case,” Josol said, “the accused was not arrested.”

Because Cuesta reported on a wide range of sensitive issues, Josol said it was hard to pinpoint which report might have prompted the murder—although he noted that Cuesta’s reports on illegal gambling touched on potential police involvement. Cuesta also criticized the mayor for city hall’s slow implementation of flood prevention projects, he said.

“After one year, the police have done nothing to arrest the suspect because the accused is connected to the mayor,” Josol said. “There have been many instances when the suspect was seen inside his house, at restaurants, on the street, and he still remains free. We report this on the radio and call on national authorities to intervene because we can’t rely on” the local police. Josol said his station’s journalists were receiving new anonymous threats, including text messages that say, “You’ll be next.”

Marcelo Pintac, director of police for General Santos City, takes issue with such criticism. He said Acharon was dismissed from police service in December 2008 when it became clear the officer was a suspect in the killing. Pintac also insisted that, despite public sightings of Acheron, his officers have not been able to track down the suspect to serve the arrest warrant.

Cuesta’s widow, Gloria, who now travels with two state-appointed bodyguards, has come under pressure to “settle” the case outside of court. She told CPJ that soon after her husband’s murder, she received anonymous text messages offering up to 100,000 pesos to drop the case. In more recent weeks, she said, a longtime acquaintance who claimed to represent the suspects approached her to ask how much it would take to halt the proceedings.

Amid such strong political pressure, many are deeply skeptical that a fair trial can be held in General Santos City courts. Josol noted that the salaries, allowances, and vehicle privileges of local judges are all at the discretion of city hall. Although Mayor Acharon has publicly urged local police to arrest his cousin, many local journalists saw a regional court’s decision in February to reassign the case to another branch as politically motivated. The reassignment, done at the behest of defense, effectively delayed the issuance of an arrest warrant for several weeks. Now, defense lawyer Garcia told CPJ, he will challenge the legality of the current warrant.

WPP head Dacera said defendants often seek to delay proceedings with the intention of breaking the will of witnesses. “We have witnesses that have been in the program for years, and the cases are just gathering dust,” said Dacera, noting that two or three years of delays can produce “procedural nightmares” for the witnesses involved. “By the time the witnesses do finally testify, they often can’t even remember what they put in their affidavits.”

But that’s not the case with Flores, who said that he will never forget the details of the day his colleague was killed at his side. “I will not quit,” he said, “no matter how long it takes.” (By Shawn W. Crispin. The author is CPJ’s senior Southeast Asia representative.)


CPJ’s recommendations to Philippine authorities:

* The legislature and executive branch should ensure adequate funding for the Witness Protection Program. The legislature should appropriate the 140 million pesos sought by President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo to fund the program.

* The judicial system should promptly review and approve motions seeking changes of venue in journalist murder cases. In several cases, public prosecutors and attorneys representing victims’ families have filed these motions to ensure neutral and secure venues.

* National police should take assertive and timely enforcement action in response to all reports of intimidation or bribery of witnesses.

* These steps must be part of a broad, nationwide strategy to aggressively prosecute the killers of journalists. Task Force USIG and local authorities must not only file charges, they must apprehend wanted suspects and build strong evidentiary cases against them.



Link: http://cpj.org/reports/2009/08/philippines-impunity-under-oath-under-threat.php

Arrest killers of Filipino broadcaster, media watchdog urges RP authorities

Reporters Without Borders urges the authorities deploy all the resources needed to identify, arrest and punish the perpetrators and instigators of radio journalist Godofredo Linao’s murder.

Linao was gunned down yesterday in Barobo, in Surigao del Sur province, on the southern island of Mindanao.

“Linao is the fourth journalist to be killed in less than two months in the Philippines, in what was the third murder of this kind,” Reporters Without Borders said. “Many of these murders have taken place in Mindanao, which has become one of the most dangerous regions in the world for radio journalists.”

The press freedom organization added: “The government must react by assigning more resources to the special Task Force for crimes of violence against the press and must stop balking at the arrest of those who mastermind these murders.”

Linao, 49, was shot four times in the back as he was about to set off on his motorcycle at night yesterday.

Radyo Natin manager Mar Alvizo said Linao hosted a programme on controversial subjects that was called “Tinitira niya talaga” (With Comment) and a program called “Kapamilya Walang Iwanan” on Magic Love FM.

He was also provincial deputy governor Librado Navarro’s spokesman and hoped to be candidate in the next local elections.

The police are investigating the circumstances and motive, which was probably political.

Broadcaster killed in Mindanao

COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / July 28, 2009) – Media groups have condemned the killing of a Filipino radio broadcaster in Surigao del Sur province in Mindanao region, south of the Philippines.

Police said Godofredo Linao Jr., 49, was shot at close range on Monday in the town of Barobo. Linao, a commentator for the Radyo Natin, was the sixth journalist killed in the country this year.

The motive of the attack was unknown, but police suspects the killing was connected to his work. Linao was a known hard-hitting journalist who had criticized politicians.

The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines condemned the murder.

The Philippines has been tagged as one of the most dangerous places in the world for journalists. Dozens of journalists have been killed since 2001 in the country under President Gloria Arroyo’s watch, according to NUJP. (Mindanao Examiner)

Policeman held for reporter death in the Philippines

A policeman in the Philippines has been arrested for the murder of journalist Crispin Perez on June 9, the BBC said.

It said the shooting, in central Mindoro Occidental province, is one of scores of alleged murders of journalists by members of the security forces.

The Philippines is one of the most dangerous places for reporters, and conviction of the killers is rare.

Mr Perez was a lawyer and former provincial vice-governor who hosted his own show on Radio DWDO.

The latest attack on a journalist took place last week, when radio commentator Jonathan Petalvero, in southern Agusan del Sur province, was killed. No arrest has been made.

The National Union of Journalists in the Philippines (NUJP) said five journalists were killed last year and 59 have been killed since 2001, when President Gloria Macapagal Arroyo came to power. (BBC)

Broadcaster shot dead in Southern Philippines

AGUSAN DEL SUR, Philippines - A radio broadcaster was shot dead by an unknown gunman in Agusan del Sur province, police said Monday.

Jonathan Petalvero, the 43-year-old host of a news commentary program on dxFM station in Bayugan town, was attacked by a gunman riding a motorcycle along a road here late Saturday, Bayugan police officer Johnny Orlanez said.

The motive for the attack was unclear, although residents said the victim had planned to run for public office in the municipal council in the May 2010 general elections.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists earlier this year said the Philippines was among several countries where media workers were murdered with impunity. (ABS-CBN / AFP)


Link: http://www.abs-cbnnews.com/nation/regions/06/29/09/broadcaster-shot-dead-agusan-del-sur-govt

Court jails killer of slain Filipino journalist

MANILA, Philippines (Reuters) - A Philippine court found an unemployed man guilty on Wednesday for the 2006 killing of a radio commentator on the southern island of Mindanao, sending him to jail for 17 years.

It was only the sixth conviction among more than 100 cases of murders of Filipino journalists since 1986, a local media group said.

"We are thankful to the government prosecutors for making sure justice would be served," Maximo Solis, an official of the local broadcasters' association, told reporters. "But we want to know why our colleague was killed and who wanted him dead."

Radio broadcaster Armando Pace, known for his critical commentaries on local politicians, was shot in the head and chest as he was riding home from work in July 2006 in southern Digos City.

One of the two gunmen linked to the crime, Joy Anticamara, was caught and brought to trial but denied he was near the crime scene. The court threw out his alibi after a neighbour identified him as one of the gunmen.

The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has listed the Philippines as among the world's most dangerous places for journalists due to many unresolved murders since 1998.

About 24 killings of Filipino journalists have remained unresolved in the last 10 years, said a CPJ report in March 2009, calling on the government to prosecute and punish those behind the murders.

The government said four people had been convicted in the last eight years and 26 others were facing charges for the murder of at least 31 Filipino journalists since 2001. But local media groups said about 78 to 100 of more than 130 journalists have been killed since 1986 and only five of those cases led to convictions. (Reuters)

New arrest warrant out for suspects in slay of Filipino journalist

MANILA, Philippines - A Philippine court issued a new arrest warrant for the suspects, one of them a police officer, in the 2008 killing of radio broadcaster Dennis Cuesta in the southern Philippines, according to the Southeast Asian Press Alliance.

It said General Santos City Regional Trial Court Branch 37 Judge Panambulan Mimbisa issued on 7 April 2009 the warrant against accused Police Inspector Redempto “Boy” Acharon, an alias “Gerry”, and several John Does in the killing of Cuesta. No bail was recommended.

The court also ordered the arresting officers to report within 10 days whether the suspects have been arrested. Over a dozen warrants of arrest have not been served on suspects in the killing of journalists in the Philippines.

The new arrest order came two months after the first arrest warrant against the accused was lifted. Branch 36 judge Isaac Alvero Moran recalled the first warrant of arrest on 12 February 2009, after the case (Criminal Case no. 20846) was transferred to another branch (37) of the same court. The transfer was triggered by “Very Urgent Motion to Recall Case Raffled to Branch 35 (sic)” filed by the accused.

To remove doubts on the regularity of the raffling, the RTC executive judge had ordered RTC Branch 36 to send the case back to the Office of the Clerk of Court so that it will “be included in the regular raffling of cases on…February 12” and “be considered as a newly filed case” on 11 February 2009.

Cuesta died in the hospital on 9 August 2008, five days after a gunman on a motorcycle shot him along a national highway near a shopping mall in General Santos City. A program director and anchor at the local station of Radio Mindanao Network (RMN), Cuesta was on his way home from an RMN-sponsored outreach program.

Cuesta’s widow, Gloria, told the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), a SEAPA founding member, on 20 April 2009 that she was glad that the court had issued a warrant but said she is dismayed that Acharon is still at large and freely roaming General Santos City. She said some local journalists even saw Acharon visiting a local police station last week. “The police told them (the journalists) that they could not arrest Acharon because they had not received a copy of the arrest warrant.”

According to a Philippine National Police Task Force Usig (Prosecute) report, 27 identified suspects in 26 cases of work-related killings of journalists are at large (22 others remain unidentified). These 27 identified suspects include Acharon and the alleged masterminds in the celebrated Marlene Esperat case. Out of these identified suspects, 21 have standing warrants of arrest.

Esperat was killed on 24 March 2005 inside her home in Tacurong City in the southern province of Sultan Kudarat. Although her killers have been convicted, the alleged masterminds have yet to be arrested despite a standing warrant. Sultan Kudarat is approximately 968 kms from Manila.

As in the Esperat case, the Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists (FFFJ) filed last 12 February 2009 a request to transfer the trial to another court in Makati City to avoid the political clout of the accused.

FFFJ is a coalition of media organizations formed to address the killing of journalists. It is composed of the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (Association of Broadcasters of the Philippines), the Philippine Press Institute, the Center for Community Journalism and Development, the Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, and the CMFR, which serves as its secretariat.

CMFR (http://cmfr.com.ph/) is a SEAPA founding member based in Manila, the Philippines, working to promote ethical journalism and to protect press freedom.

ZAMBASULTA Journalists Condemn Murder Of Broadcaster

A STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES - ZAMBASULTA CHAPTER ON THE RECENT KILLINGS OF MEDIA PRACTITIONERS IN MINDANAO.

LAST February 23, another colleague in media, Ernesto Rollin, a broadcaster of Radio Station dxSY - Times Broadcasting Network, in Ozamis City, was brutally shot and killed by two masked men in Oroquieta City, Misamis Occidental province.

Since then or in the past two weeks alone, one other - Ronaldo Doong, a block-time broadcaster – was attacked by two armed men while traveling along the highway in Colorado village in Digos City. A third colleague, Badrodin Abas, a block timer broadcaster of DxCM in Cotabato City and the secretary general of the United Bangsamoro Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD), was shot dead last January 21 by again two cowardly armed men riding a motorcycle while he was driving in Cotabato City.

Ernie Rollin was the 99th journalist killed since 1986, when democracy was supposed to have been restored in the Philippines; he was the 63rd mediaman killed during this incumbent human-rights and extra-judicial killings plagued regime of President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo.

These media men are only a few among the numberless and many other Filipino men and women who had dared to work for truth and social justice who were gunned down in recent years. Most of their cases are naturally unsolved, since the rule of law is on the brink of anarchy and collapse in this nation. The continuing litany of news about summary killings throughout the country only means that not only media men but ordinary citizens are in constant danger of premeditated, undeserved and sudden murder and death.

We, members of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines-ZamBaSulTa (Zamboanga-Basilan-Sulu-Tawi-Tawi) Chapter, can only but, of course, join in the condemnation of these recent acts of violence against our colleagues and deadly aggression against the human and civil rights of Filipino journalists and citizens.

We are not hopeful that such appeals, among the so many in the past, will move our callous and deaf authorities to take serious and appropriate action to solve these killings and give justice to the victims, their families and to the society to whom they dedicated their work and to whom they belonged. Yet, we can only try, and we continue to hope.

Stop killing journalists! Stop killing innocent Filipinos!

NATIONAL UNION OF JOURNALISTS OF THE PHILIPPINES - ZAMBASULTA CHAPTERMarch 2, 2009

Oroquieta Press Club seeks justice for murdered broadcaster in Mindanao

We wish to convey our deepest sympathy and condolence to the bereaved family of Ernesto “Ka Ernie” Rollin. The whole community of media practitioners in Oroquieta City and Misamis Occidental is one with you in the search for justice to his untimely death.

While we understand the utmost risk involved in the nature of our profession, we strongly condemn the brutal and treacherous murder of our fellow journalist who earned his living through his journalistic practice. In this regard, we call on the police to fast track its investigation into the case and pave the way for immediate justice to Ka Ernie and his family.

Likewise, we call on the people to be vigilant in monitoring the conduct and any development pertaining to the investigation currently being undertaken by the authorities.

As a full-time radio commentator, Ka Ernie must have earned the ire from traditional politicians in Misamis Occidental for his fierce attacks and commentaries on corruption issues involving them. Irregardless of his political affiliation and personal belief, he deserves the rights every journalist in the country should enjoy.

Telling the truth to the public no matter how dismal it may seem to the public official involved remains a noble principle of every media practitioner. Besides, it is the public’s right to know every detail concerning the affairs of any government body and the performance of every elected government official.

Killing a journalist cannot kill the truth nor can conceal the official’s misdoings from the public’s eye. In contrast, it only further shows the lack of moral authority to the part of the official.

We understand that the lack of economic security, low income, and political violence have forced several media practitioners into several corrupt practices to include the familiar term of “envelopmental journalism”, among others.

These practices then easily make them frontline targets of political violence. But in Ka Ernie and all other media deaths, there is absolutely no moral and rational justification for murder. Now, Ka Ernie has become a part of the long-list of victims of impunity against journalists in the Philippines.

While justice remains elusive for Ka Ernie and the rest of our fallen journalists, the national government still falls short of providing protection and long-term solution to the issue of media killings. The lack of concrete actions, delay in investigative and judicial proceedings contributes much to the culture of media killings.

The lack of seriousness and sincerity to the part of the police in the pursuit of investigations further denies the media community right to speedy justice. The Oroquieta City Press Club joins hand with other media groups in the country for this common call for an end to media killings.

We at the Oroquieta Press Club reiterate our call for a swift and impartial investigation that will eventually lead towards the delivery of justice to Ka Ernie’s family and the media community as well.

Stop the Killings! Justice to Ka Ernie!

Paul Pastrano Gangoso

President, Oroquieta City Press Club

(

http://tungkab.wordpress.com/2009/02/26/statement-of-the-oroquieta-city-press-club-on-the-recent-killing-of-broadcaster-ernie-rollin)

Media Watch Dog Condemns Killing Of Broadcaster In Mindanao

ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines - The National Union of Journalists of the Philippine Zamboanga Basilan Sulu-Tawi-tawi Chapter is condemning another media killing which is the second case to occur in 2009.

Ernesto Rollin a radio broadcaster of DXSY Times Broadcasting Network in Ozamis City is the second journalist murdered this year and the 64th victim under the Arroyo's administration.

Rollin of Oroquieta city was on his way to report to Ozamis City for his morning's public affairs program at Times Broadcasting Network at 5:30 a.m. on February 23 when two suspects on ski-masks shot him several times.

The first victim for this year and the 63rd under Arroyo's administration was Badrodin Abas a block timer broadcaster of DxCM in Cotabato City.

Abas who was also the secretary general of the United Bangsamoro Youth for Peace and Development (UNYPAD) was gunned down on January 21 around 7:40pm by two unidentified assailants riding on tandem on motorbike when the victim was driving a multicab.

The NUJP ZAMBASULTA Chapter is demanding fair and just investigation to both slay cases (Abas and Rollin).

Filipino broadcaster killed in Mindanao

ILIGAN CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Feb. 23, 2009) – A Filipino broadcaster was gunned down while on his way to work in Mindanao, reports said on Monday.

Ernie Rollin, who worked for dusty, was killed by two gunmen at around 5.30 a.m. at a parking area near a gas station in Oroquieta City in the province of Misaims Occidental.

Rollin was parking his motorcycle when the masked men attacked him. The victim usually parks his motorcycle in the area and takes a commuter bus for work in Ozamiz City.

No individual or group claimed responsibility for the attack and police said it is still investigating the killing. The motive of the murder is unknown, but Rollin was the eighth journalist killed in the Philippines since last year and the 63rd murdered since 2001 under President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo's watch.

Media groups condemned the killing of Rullen.

Last December, gunmen also killed a radio commentator Leo Mila in San Roque town in the central Filipino province of Samar. Mila, who worked with the Radyo Natin, was attacked while on his way to work.

The International Press Institute's (IPI) annual World Press Freedom Review released this month said Asia replaced the Middle-East as the deadliest region for journalists last year, with 26 reporters, photographers and editors losing their lives in retaliation for their work or in civil conflicts.

It said though more journalists were killed in Iraq than in any other country in 2008 for the sixth year in a row, Pakistan became the second deadliest place for journalists as chaos gripped the country's politics and conflict spread along the border with Afghanistan.

The annual report by IPI which this year focuses on Asia also shows that in many cases where journalists are murdered, the crimes are often never prosecuted.

”Impunity remains a contagion in the region, particularly in the Philippines and Sri Lanka, but the murderers of journalists are also escaping prosecution in leading democracies such as India,” IPI Director David Dadge said in releasing the report.
“Those who want to stifle free expression and frighten journalists into silence and self-censorship are succeeding because of impunity,” Dadge said.

The IPI listed the following as the World's Deadliest Places for Journalists in 2008 - Iraq (14), Pakistan (6), India, Philippines, Mexico (5 each), Georgia, Russia (4 each), Thailand (3) and Somalia, Afghanistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Croatia (2 each).

IPI includes in its “Death Watch” journalists and media staff who were deliberately targeted because of their profession - either because of their investigative reporting or simply because they were journalists. IPI also includes journalists who were caught in the crossfire while covering dangerous assignments. (Mindanao Examiner)

Warrant against suspects in Filipino journalist’s slay lifted

GENERAL SANTOS CITY, Philippines (CMFR / Feb. 18, 2009) - A judge in the Philippines lifted the warrant of arrest he himself had issued against the alleged killers of radio broadcaster Dennis Cuesta.

Regional Trial Court (RTC) Branch 36 judge Isaac Alvero Moran of General Santos City revoked February 12 the warrant of arrest issued early this month against Police Inspector Redempto Acharon and several other suspects in the killing of Cuesta after the city's RTC Executive Judge ordered the case to "be included in the regular raffling of cases…and to be considered as a newly filed case." General Santos City is approximately 1,049 km southeast of Manila.

Moran in his order said that "…the probable cause order and warrant of arrest issued on February 3 must of necessity end up in smoke as the legal basis of its issuance has been virtually stripped. Consequentially, said Order and Warrant are hereby RECALLED, LIFTED and SET-ASIDE to pave way for Hon. Panambulan M. Mimbisa, presiding Judge of RTC-37, to make his own finical and evangelical (sic) findings therein."

Mimbisa has yet to decide if a warrant against Acharon should be issued.

RTC Executive Judge Oscar Noel Jr. ordered on 11 February 2009 that the case be re-raffled "to give peace of mind to the concerned party" acting on the "Very Urgent Motion to Recall Case Raffled to Branch 35 (sic)" filed by Acharon’s lawyer Rogelio Garcia last 10 February.

Gloria Cuesta, wife of the slain broadcaster, told the Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) that she was shocked by the lifting of the arrest warrant against Acharon. "It was unfair…. Are they trying to delay justice by recalling the warrant of arrest?" Cuesta said in Filipino.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) in Davao said in a statement that "some colleagues…had predicted that this development would happen."

"That their prediction has been accurate makes us fear the Cuesta murder may end up like the majority of other cases of our slain colleagues," NUJP added.

Only in two cases since 2001 have there been convictions against the alleged gunmen—in the killing of Pagadian journalist Edgar Damalerio and of Sultan Kudarat journalist Marlene Esperat. No mastermind has been convicted.

An unidentified gunman on a motorcycle shot Cuesta on August 4, 2008 along a national highway near a shopping mall in General Santos City. Cuesta, program director and anchor at the local station of Radio Mindanao Network, was on his way home from an outreach program.

Cuesta sustained wounds in the head and near the spinal column after being shot five times with a .45 caliber pistol.

Cuesta died five days after the attack.

Cuesta was the second RMN broadcaster killed in 2008. Martin Roxas, program director of dyVR-RMN in Roxas City, died on August 7, 2008 after a gunman shot him a few kilometers away from the station.

Thirty-nine journalists and media practitioners have been killed in the line of duty in the Philippines since 2001, more than half of the total number of work-related killings since 1986.

Philippine policeman charged in journalist slaying

MANILA, Philippines - Government prosecutors have filed murder charges against a police officer in the killing of a radio journalist in a southern Philippine city last year, an official said Wednesday.

Justice Undersecretary Ricardo Blancaflor said arrest warrants were issued for Inspector Redempto Acharon and several alleged accomplices after charges were filed in court Tuesday in connection with the August 2008 slaying of Dennis Cuesta, program director of Radio Mindanao Network in General Santos city.

It is not clear why Cuesta was targeted but local media have noted that Acharon is a cousin of the mayor of General Santos — an official whom Cuesta criticized in his radio program.
The officer charged has denied any involvement.

More than 60 journalists have been killed since 2001, making the Philippines one of the world's most dangerous places for reporters. The media watchdog group, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility, said Cuesta was one of six journalists killed "in the line of duty" in the Philippines last year.

Blancaflor, head of a government task force in charge of investigating and prosecuting suspects involved in political killings, said the killings "affect the entire nation and not just a particular group of people."

Blancaflor said Acharon and his co-accused were "considered threats to public safety and security," and urged authorities to arrest them as quickly as possible.
Local newspapers have quoted Acharon as saying that the charges were meant to discredit city Mayor Pedro Acharon, his cousin.

Cuesta was in a coma for several days before he died.(AP)

Reporters Sans Borders is outraged by killing of broadcaster in the Philippines

Reporters Without Borders is outraged by the murder of Leo Mila, a Radyo Natin presenter in San Roque, in the central province of Northern Samar.

Mila was gunned down at around 7 p.m. Tuesday by an unidentified person outside the station's studios in San Roque.

"The repeated, targeted murders of radio presenters are a disgrace for the Philippines," Reporters Without Borders said. "The safety of all the victim's colleagues is in danger if nothing is done to rein in the current wave of violence. The impunity must stop and the guilty must be punished."

Mila's body was found by his colleagues in a grassy area a few metres from the entrance to the station. They said they heard several shots but did not go out at once because it was dark. His motorbike was found lying on its side, not far from the body.

The manager of the San Roque branch of Radyo Natin, Alice Cargo, said Mila recently hosted a debate about anomalies in the collection of money from the parents of students at a local high school. Police planned to question two of the school's teachers, she said.

Carolina L. Montilla, the head of the local branch of the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP), said Mila was known for speaking out and had received threats for criticising local corruption.

Aged 35, he presented a programme every morning in which he addressed complaints sent in by listeners. He also wrote articles for various regional newspapers and recently published a local magazine An Peryodista. He is survived by his wife and two children.

He was the eighth journalist to be killed since the start of the year in the Philippines and the second Radyo Natin presenter to be gunned down in less than a month. Aristeo Padrigao, a Radyo Natin host in Gingoog City, in Misamis Oriental province, was shot dead by two men on a motorcycle outside a school on November 17 after dropping off one of his children.

A Killing Puzzle: The Life and Death of a Radio Commentator - Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project

GINGOOG CITY, Misamis Oriental — Three days after burying him, the family of Aresio Padrigao were packing up their simple belongings and waiting for the people from the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) witness protection program to take them to the relative safety of Cagayan de Oro, a two-hour drive away.

There they hope to be resettled: there, his three children, Ariston, Arceli and Aries hope to find new schools; and only there is his clearly nervous and distressed widow Teresita prepared to speak in detail to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) which has been ordered in to lead in the hunt for the killers of the local radio block-timer. Padrigao was a heavy critic of the city administration and illegal loggers via his weekly one hour show “Inform the Public.”

“Local police chief Superintendent Leonyroy Ga is working with both the NBI and the DOJ on two possible leads and hopes the case can be solved within the month. Even so, he complains he is heavily reliant on the public coming forward. Ga has only just oved from Iligan City where last year he headed the investigation into another journalist shooting, that of Joe Pantoja, a radioman who survived despite being shot eight times.

Considered by many to be a fair and reliable pair of hands, the police chief was just one week in the job at the time of Padrigao’s killing on November 17. He says there is “a lot of pressure from above” to solve this case.

A 9mm. bullet casing had been retrieved from the scene and so too, somewhat remarkably, the alleged license plate of the motorbike used in the attack.

“We first thought that yes, the plate could simply have been thrown there by the assailants and this could be a false lead to send us on the wrong trail. The bike too may have been stolen, but we have followed it up and it is registered to an owner in Davao,” the police chief told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project.

“The plate number will probably have been taken off and held or put in a bag before the shooting. We had witnesses that told us the plate fell out from the killer’s backpack as he was rushing to hide his gun and make a getaway,” he said.

Papers with the name, photograph and address of the bike’s owner were shown to the Project by Ga, who confirmed that while the owner had no known criminal record he remained one of two current suspects. The other, whose name was first given to the Project by another source, is a reported gun-for-hire with two outstanding arrest warrants to his name for murder and attempted murder.

“The problem is we don’t know where he is, but we have the bullet casing and if we can tie that to his gun, then we have a match,” Ga said.

But even if so, while it may prove the case of who pulled the trigger on Padrigao, it will shed no light on the person or people behind his execution.

Recordings of Padrigao’s final four shows have been given to the Project to see if they can help shed any light on his killing – the sixth this year, surpassing last year’s ive media killings. He was also the 61st journalist to be killed in the Philippines since 2001 when President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo took over.

In his broadcasts, Padrigao attacked city hall, the local government and too, the local police and the local Department of Environment and Natural Resources office for what he saw was a failure to catch illegal loggers.

“He had sources inside the city hall,” said Gualberto Pahunang, station manager of dxRS Radyo Natin (Our Radio) where the journalist had been broadcasting his show every Friday between 10 and 11 a.m. for the past two years. As a block-timer, Padrigao paid the station PhP 1,000 (USD) 20) a week.

Work-related?

Pahunang believes the killing could well be related to his work at the station.

Padrigao was one of six block-timers at Radyo Natin, a local community affiliate of the Manila Broadcasting Company. A framed certificate from the Philippine Red Cross thanking the station for its humanitarian reporting hangs on the wall.

“We are a public service radio for the people,” says Pahunang. “Some officials criticize us saying why are you doing this? You want to be heroes? You’re just monkeys.”

The station is little more than a simple box measuring six square feet with a computer, transmitter, basic mixing desk, two microphones and a stack of plastic chairs which can also be used in the yard outside.

“He was always reading directly from papers and documents he brought with him. He was very careful about that,” said Pahunang. With little experience in journalism, Padrigao was still considered “a trainee” and had to be coached by his manager on legal issues like libel and slander.

“I gave him a discount because he was poor. He was always trying to help the poor. But he was very poor himself. You can see that from where he lives. If people needed medicine, he would try and help and he would get sponsorship for the show from local people like sari-sari (variety) store owners,” said Pahunang.

He added: “His wife said somebody had been following them for a month and he told me he had threats, but he wouldn’t tell me where they came from.”

“It is very sad what happened,” says Attorney Benjamin Guimong, a respected lawyer in the city, from his office in Rizal Street. “Things are getting bad here in this city. You can hire a gunman here for PhP 1,500 (USD 30). That means nobody is safe.”

There has reportedly been a sudden recent spike in cases of extra judicial killings with the shooting of the administrator of the city market – an employee of city hall – under similar circumstances in August.

Some observers who wished not to be named suggested drugs, illegal gambling and extortion are becoming serious problems in this rural and somewhat isolated city of 120,000 people in North Eastern Mindanao. In the local print media, Gingoog is trying to advertise itself as a potential tourist attraction, but is much better known nationally only as a center for illegal logging.

According to Guimong, Padrigao was intending to publicly accuse those he believed responsible for a raid last month on the city treasury which reportedly netted robbers PhP 1 million (USD 20,408).

“I pleaded with him to be careful and not to talk about that on the radio until he had all the evidence,” Guimong said.

Guimong also spoke of the journalist telling him about threats he had allegedly received in the days before his death. Padrigao again supposedly refused to divulge the exact source of the threats.

When the lawyer said he urged him to vary his routine and take extra care, Padrigao replied that he would be okay. A few days later, on Monday, November 17, Padrigao was shot dead outside the gates of Bukidnon State University.

The campus also serves as the local elementary school. Padrigao was dropping off his youngest daughter at around 7 a.m. when he was ambushed by a gunman and his accomplice riding in tandem on a motorcycle.

A simple wooden cross and stone shrine built by local pupils stands at the spot where he bled to death in front of his daughter.

Witness to a killing

Exactly four weeks earlier on Monday, October 14, Padrigao witnessed a similar extrajudicial style killing on the national highway when Randy Naduma, the son of a barangay (village) captain was shot dead in front of him by two men on a passing bike.

“He witnessed the killing. He knew the killer,” said station manager Pahunang.

Many observers in Gingoog believe the two killings are very much connected and some reports claim Padrigao was overheard talking into his phone following the shooting agreeing not to testify.

“He wanted to keep out of that business. He told them that it was their business, not his,” a source told the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project.

And according to his family, Padrigao refused to report the incident to the police. One month on, witnesses to his own killing are now similarly wary of speaking out.

Padrigao bled to death directly in front of at least five stall-holders and pedicab drivers. All told these writers that they were too scared to help and did not want to get involved.

Only Fely Brianeza says she is prepared to testify in court if called. Even then, she says she did not see anything that could help catch the killers. “I only looked up when I heard his little girl crying. I didn’t even hear the shot.”

Nobody could describe the gunman, the driver-lookout or the motorbike as it sped off heading south and away from the city. Both wore helmets — a serious traffic violation here which has ironically banned them for public safety reasons. Too many armed robberies have been committed by people in helmets.

Asked if he could remember anything or was prepared to testify, a man who prepared and sold small bags of sliced mangoes said no. “I don’t trust or believe in the system,” he said.

Another stall-holder who sells sweets to the children directly in front of the gates said she didn’t offer to help Padrigao “because it was obvious he was dead. There was a lot of blood.”

A neighbor who was bringing his own children to school saw the body and the crying girl and brought her back home to alert Mrs. Padrigao who says she had to take her husband to the hospital herself.

“Death is not the end. It is just the beginning,” says a simple paper streamer hanging over an unlit candle in the Padrigao family’s two-roomed house in the city’s shanty area. Their home in Barangay 19 is dark and hard to find and the lane down from the national highway and toward the sea is almost impassable.

A black and white banner calling for justice and decorated with a bloodied dagger hangs over a makeshift porch outside and above the heads of two special force police officers who have recently been assigned to keep watch over the family. But there is very little sense that justice for Padrigao and his family will be easily found here on the streets of Gingoog City.

In the days immediately following the killing, Padrigao’s wife publicly complained she was not being offered any support or protection from the authorities. It led to reports that protection instead had been offered by the communist New People’s Army (NPA) which is said to be very active in the surrounding hills.

NPA, agent

Like the city Padrigao lived and died in, his life read like a puzzle book up until the very end.

The lawyer Guimong first came across him 20 years ago when he was called to defend Padrigao from a charge of being a member of the NPA. At the same time, Guimong says, the army stepped in and identified him as being a military intelligence asset – an agent – for them.

Whatever the truth, veteran print and radio journalist Bingo Alcordo and columnist for the Mindanao Gold Star Daily remembers Padrigao as a friend and activist who was constantly working in support of the poor.

“He was former NPA but he was well-known for bringing 20 NPA members down from the hills to reintegrate them into society,” said Alcordo, who is based in Cagayan de Oro City.

And while Radyo Natin’s station manger suggests that Padrigao also nurtured political ambitions and was looking forward to campaigning in “some way” for the 2010 elections, his family confirmed that he had worked for many years as a bodyguard to Gingoog mayor Ruthie Guingona before quitting to manage a lumberyard on behalf of his cousin Roger Edma.

Request to interview the mayor was politely declined.

Broadcast targets

Some targets of Padrigao’s radio broadcasts claim Padrigao was himself involved in illegal logging and that illegal loggers may have killed him.

One of Padrigao’s targets on his weekly show was city administrator Tita Garrido. Says station manager Pahunang: “He was against favoritism and attacked her.”

Garrido confirmed she was the subject of some of his attacks, saying that Padrigao had suspicions her decision to come back out of retirement during a City Hall restructuring was ‘irregular.’ However she insisted she had nothing to hide and had even “offered to speak to Padrigao and open the books on her appointment.”

Garrido added that she never personally listened to his broadcasts and was not angry with him. “There was nothing to get angry about. I never get angry,” she said.

Asked if she thought anybody in City Hall had a serious enough grudge against Padrigao to kill him, she replied no.

“I can’t imagine anybody being involved.”

Instead Garrido suggested Padrigao could have been killed because of his involvement in illegal logging. She said: “There were no big problems with drugs or gambling in Gingoog City, just illegal logging.”

The city administrator went on to say that mayor Guingona has been “aggressively targeting the illegal loggers and went out at nights to catch them,” but in doing so she was attacked by Padrigao in his radio broadcasts.

“I believe that Mr. Padrigao should not have been critical of the mayor since she is the one against illegal logging.”

For their part, family and friends insist that Padrigao’s involvement in the logging business was wholly legitimate: contracts were arranged and won fairly and that their only other interest was in working so called “dry logs” or dead and fallen trees which are deemed unprotected and public property.

Clearly agitated and impatient to leave the city that was once her home, Mrs. Padrigao refused to say who she thought was responsible for her husband’s shooting. She also denied having publicly accused Gingoog vice mayor Marlon Kho for being behind her husband’s killing when he spoke to her by cell phone to offer his condolences at the hospital as Padrigao was being certified dead by doctors.

“I have witnesses that she did,” the vice mayor, a local businessman, told these writers outside his villa. He politely refused to answer any questions except to confirm he had filed a case against Mrs. Padrigao and to deny categorically that he had anything to do with the killing. “I will make a statement in due course,” he said. “But not right now.”

Kho also said he condemned the killing of Padrigao but had “no idea” who might have been responsible. “Right now we have convened the peace and order council of the city and the province, and we are discussing a proposal to give additional funds to the police this coming Wednesday.”

Back at the police station, an entry in the police blotter seen by the Project reports an alleged death threat made to a colleague of Padrigao who has a show Monday mornings in Radyo Natin. (Alan Davis and Ma. Cecilia L. Rodriguez / Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project - Alan Davis is Project Director of the Philippine Human Rights Reporting Project and Ma. Cecilia L. Rodriguez is a journalist based in Cagayan de Oro City).

Threats hound slain radioman's colleagues - GMA News

GINGOOG CITY, Philippines - Three colleagues of slain radio broadcaster Arecio Padrigao Sr are now fearing for their lives after receiving threatening text messages and phone calls from anonymous individuals.

Emmanuel Ansihagan and two other radio reporters from dxRS had separately complained to police authorities regarding calls and text messages that said that they are going to be killed.

Ansihagan, anchorman for the radio program “Hustisya’t Katarungan,” complained to Gingoog City Police Director Leoney Roy Ga his fears were heightened by the death of Padrigao last Monday.

Padrigao, 52, was gunned down by motorcycle- riding men outside the Bukidnon State University where he dropped off one of his children.

Two other radio blocktimers, Allan Pelegrino and Willie Ramos, claimed to receive threatening text messages.

Pastor Victor Dela Serna, himself a former blocktimer of DXRS FM “Radio Natin,” advised former colleagues to pray and stay put. He said that they need to continue their tradition of fair and honest reporting for the sake of Gingoog City and neighboring towns.

The city of Gingoog in the southern Philippine province of Misamis Oriental has only two AM radio stations: the state- owned Radyo ng Bayan DXRG and DXRS.

DXRS owner and station manager Gualberto Pahunang Jr confirmed the death threats received by his blocktimers and expressed disappointment on how the Justice department’s Task Force “Usig” is handling the case.

“How can they resolve the killings if they are always inside air- conditioned rooms in Metro Manila?” Pahunang said in his native dialect.

The Task Force was created to investigate on death and disappearances of media men, military members and other high- risk personalities. (Alvin Guanzon, GMANews.TV - http://www.gmanews.tv/story/135184/Death-threats-hound-slain-radiomans-colleagues)