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By Jose Torres Jr., Philippine Center for
Investigative Journalism
(Conclusion)
PAGADIAN CITY: The newspaper editor and
publisher Hernan de la Cruz may own several guns, but arming himself
has not made him feel safer living and working here. Four
journalists have been killed in Pagadian since 2000, making the city
the most dangerous in the country for journalists.
Because he, too, has received death threats, de
la Cruz has avoided printing stories critical of politicians,
especially those linking them to illegal activities. “It’s not
worth dying for,” he says. “I don’t want to sacrifice my
family.” According to de la Cruz, other journalists in this city
are also steering clear of “investigative” stories.
Had any of the gunmen and the masterminds
responsible for the deaths of the four journalists been convicted,
members of the Pagadian media would feel more secure.
Plotters of newsmen’s slays often slip away
But so far the only one behind bars is Guillermo
Wapille, a former policeman, and the primary suspect in the May 2002
murder of the radio journalist Edgar Damalerio—and only because
sustained pressure by the media forced Wapille to surrender in late
2004.
Members of the fractious media community in
Pagadian remain apprehensive about the authorities’ inability to
investigate the killings because the suspected gunmen are either
policemen or known police assets or former goons of local officials.
Helpless
It is even harder to bring to justice those who
ordered the journalists’ murders. Damalerio’s case alone has
given rise to at least three theories, all involving politicians,
who point at each other as the likely culprit. Some powerful people
may be getting away with murder here, and even the local National
Bureau of Investigation chief admits he can do nothing about it.
“We might know who are involved, but unless
the gunman confesses, we can’t file charges against anybody,”
says Friolo Icao Jr., NBI Pagadian district office chief. “Wapille
will never talk, because somebody is helping him. I can even say
that this group is out to kill him.”
In fact, the Supreme Court last month approved
the transfer of Wapille’s trial from Pagadian to Cebu City to
protect Damalerio’s family and the remaining witness. Two of three
key witnesses to the Damalerio killing have themselves already been
murdered: Edgar Amoro, a schoolteacher, was killed just last month
and Jury Ladica in August 2002. The third witness, Edgar Ongue,
escaped a murder attempt on February 9. Anonymous death threats have
also been made against members of the Amoro and Damalerio families.
Before Damalerio was murdered, three other
journalists had already been killed in Pagadian. In May 2000 William
Yu, the publisher of the Pagadian City Star, was gunned down near
his gas station. Six months later, the broadcaster Olympio Jalapit
Jr. was also shot dead. In February 2001 two gunmen shot and killed
Muhammad Yusop, a radio commentator. Not one of these cases has been
solved.
The common thread that links the killings is
their exposés of alleged corruption among government officials,
including policemen and the military, says de la Cruz. “They were
killed because they named names,” he points out. Police, however,
say that Yu was murdered because of some bungled business deals, and
that Yusop got the bullet because he had displeased some military
officials with his interviews with the extremist Abu Sayyaf Group.
Interestingly enough, an NBI agent says one of
the suspects in the Yu murder was also Wapille, Damalerio’s
alleged killer. In addition, a witness said the assassin was seen
“casually talking with several unidentified uniformed army men who
were aboard a passenger jeep en route to the Army’s First Infantry
Division in Labangan town” before Yu was murdered. The lone gunman
shot Yu once with a pistol and then fled on a motorcycle.
‘I will kill you today’
Jalapit’s murderer, meanwhile, was riding
tandem on a motorcycle when he shot the 34-year-old broadcaster in
the back of the head. Jalapit had been getting death threats over
the years, but the final warning came as a text message on his
cellular phone on the morning of the murder: “I will kill you
today.”
Jalapit was the host of Radio Mindanao Network-DXPR’s
top-rated morning program Lampornas. He had a reputation of being a
hard-hitting commentator and loved doing exposés of political
corruption, illegal gambling, the drug trade and the activities of
insurgents in Mindanao.
At the time of his death, Jalapit was under
suspension at his station. Reportedly, the weeklong suspension was
the result of a complaint from then-Environment Secretary Antonio
Cerilles and his wife, Aurora, then the representative of the Second
District of Zamboanga del Sur. Jalapit was on his way to meet with
Aurora Cerilles when he was killed. Antonio Cerilles is now the
representative of the Second District of Zamboanga del Sur and his
wife is the governor of the province.
Representative Cerilles says Zamboanga del
Sur’s worsening peace and order is not unique, because criminality
is on the rise in other parts of the country as well. “It just so
happens that journalists have been killed in the province and some
politicians, especially me, have been tagged as suspects,” he
says.
‘Boss’
Cerilles, known to his constituents as
“Boss,” says neither he nor his wife had complained about
Jalapit’s show. A local electric cooperative and a barangay
captain were the ones who complained, he says, adding that Jalapit
had asked him to intervene to prevent his suspension. At that time
Cerilles was hosting a show on RMN’s radio station in Manila.
“I told him that maybe my wife could talk to
him,” recalls Cerilles. “So they set a meeting in the house. My
wife was waiting for him when he was killed. Why do people say
we’re behind [Jalapit’s] killing when in fact we invited him to
our house? He did not attack me or my wife. He did not criticize us.
He criticized the police for their illegal activities. He also
criticized [then-Mayor Joaquin] Pajares [of Pagadian City].”
Cerilles said Damalerio later came to him to
“talk about the killing of Jalapit. I encouraged him to go to the
police.” He describes Damalerio as a “close friend” who had
even asked for a job for his wife, Gemma. “He used to come to me
para maglambing even when I was already secretary of environment,”
says Cerilles. “He was very objective about his criticisms of me
or of the local government.” Lambing means gifts or money given to
journalists by politicians in exchange for favorable reports.
Cerilles says he doesn’t understand why he is
being linked to Damalerio’s murder, too. “We [the Cerilles
family] have been in the province for a long time and we haven’t
ordered the killing of people,” he says.
A confessed assassin also says Cerilles is not
involved in the killing of journalists. “He’s just like a dog
that growls but doesn’t bite,” says the gun for hire.
So far, all that links Cerilles with
Damalerio’s murder is “sightings” of the official or members
of his family meeting up with police days before and after the
journalist’s death. Former provincial secretary Anacleto Deliverio,
for instance, says Cerilles and his wife had met with then-Pagadian
City police chief Asuri Hawani and then-provincial police chief
Pedrito Reyes days before Damalerio was killed. Damalerio’s widow,
Gemma, also says she saw Cerilles’s father, Vicente, with Hawani
after her husband’s murder.
Hawani and Reyes were later dismissed from the
service. Recently, the justice department ordered an investigation
of Hawani for his possible involvement in the killing of Damalerio.
He will be included in the charge sheet on Damalerio’s murder if
probable cause is proven.
At the very least, observers of the case say,
Hawani failed to investigate his then-subordinate Wapille’s
involvement in the murder. The Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists
Inc. has accused Hawani of trying to hamper the investigation of the
case.
Hawani, however, is now a security consultant of
Mayor Samuel Co of Pagadian. The mayor is also known to have once
hired Mohammad Abubakar Maulana, a.k.a. Maddix, an alleged gunman in
the killing of Amoro, a witness in the Damalerio case.
Co does not deny he hired Maulana as a bodyguard
during the 2004 elections. But he says their formal connection ended
once the elections were over. “I am the city mayor,” he says.
“Do you think I will allow somebody to create criminality in my
city?”
Three witnesses have identified Maulana as among
Amoro’s three assailants, and charges have been filed against him
before the Pagadian City state prosecutor’s office for the killing
of Amoro. Co, however, doubts Maulana’s involvement in the case,
arguing that his former employee was out on bail at the time for a
variety of crimes and would not risk getting caught again. “I
[cannot] imagine why Maddix would hit Edgar,” he says. “Maddix
just came out of jail.” At this writing, Maulana remains at large.
‘I am not a babysitter’
Justice Secretary Raul M. Gonzalez had warned Co
in December that he would hold him responsible if anything happened
to Amoro. But Co says, “I am not a babysitter. I’m the city
mayor of Pagadian, I will not guarantee anybody’s life. How can I
guarantee someone’s life when I don’t even know where he goes? I
can only guarantee if the person is in my custody or is always with
me.”
Co says Amoro was a close friend; so, too, he
says, was Damalerio. He says that when Damalerio filed a case
against then-Mayor Warlito Pulmones of Pagadian and several members
of the city council, Damalerio was excluded although he was a
councilor at the time.
The case, filed before the Office of the
Ombudsman in 2001, involved the allegedly anomalous purchase by the
city government of six passenger jeepneys. This is why the mayor has
also been linked to Damalerio’s death. At the time of his killing,
however, Damalerio was also attacking Hawani, whom he reported to
the Department of the Interior and Local Government for supposed
involvement in an aborted murder and for protecting illegal gambling
in the city.
The journalist de la Cruz maintains that the
masterminds of Damalerio’s murder and the killing of Amoro are
connected. “It’s the same group and the same individuals,” he
says. “Some sectors have their own personal agenda and are trying
to muddle these things and linking other individuals,” including
at least “one politician.”
De la Cruz says he and other journalists are
trying to keep their head down as the intimidation of journalists in
Pagadian continues. But he laments, “There’s no middle ground
here anymore for journalists. Either you become corrupt or you get
killed.”
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