Police incompetence is too much, Mr. President!
January 9, 2012
Statement of National Press Club
President Jerry S. Yap
Police incompetence is
too much, Mr. President!
Lest,
President Benigno Simeon Aquino III should know: A DOZEN IS TOO BRAZEN.
The
National Press Club could only repeat the call of justice and then anticipate
another slaying coming.
Thus, the
country watched again while another journalist was killed. While it is the 12th
since P-Noy began his term as the 15th President, the slaying of Tatak
newspaper editor Christopher Guarin is the first for the year 2012.
Guarin was driving home his car past
9:00 p.m. of January 5, 2012 with his wife Lyn and 9-year-old daughter on board. A motorcycle-riding tandem overtook them near
their home in Sunrise Subdivision, Lagao, General Santos City. The gunman fired, hitting him on the neck but
not too fatal that the editor and broadcaster still managed to jump out of the
car. Obviously, he wanted to spare his
wife and daughter from harm because the bullets were about to be pumped onto
the car. The succeeding burst finished him off.
Minutes before, Guarin had just read
during his radio program the death threat on his cellular phone that stated: “If
you show up at the station tonight we’re going to kill you.”
Perhaps, a few policemen or law
enforcers could have heard the broadcast and could have voluntarily responded
to the radio station to provide security. No one
came.
Just less than a month before, or on
November 11, 2011, Brigada News Philippines circulation manager Alfredo “Dodong”
Velarde Jr. was shot dead in similar fashion in the same General Santos
City.
Velarde was waiting outside the
building complex of Brigada in Bayanihan, Barangay San Isidro when
motorcycle-riding gunmen stopped at the parking lot and delivered the death
bullets on him.
The case of Velarde has remained
unresolved as that of Guarin. If this is
not incompetence on the part of PNP Region XII director, Chief Supt. Benjardi
Mantele, then the NPC does not know what it is.
All that P-Noy has done, if there
has been any, to fulfill the pledge to stop killing journalist, is clearly not
enough.
That is, albeit admittedly he has so
much efforts for plucking cases against the so-called “big fish” of corruption.
At the beginning of his term, he approved
the proposal of the National Press Club to create a “Super Body” to specialize
on investigating even age-old cases of killing mediamen.
This proposal rested on the theory
that where it is difficult to anticipate who would commit murders, the only best
weapon left is to ensure a very high statistics of discovery and apprehension of
murderers for this will give fear to the would-be murderers to think a thousand
times.
But the President backtracked only
to watch 10 more editors, broadcasters and reporters slain one after another—almost
every month!
So far, not
one has been resolved of the cases of killing journalist that occurred since he
took his oath on July 1, 2010 as the 15th President of the Republic.
Professional gunners are plenty out
there waiting for another contract to kill a media person; a woman or a man
does not matter.
Not one has
been resolved because not one killer has been brought to the bar of
justice.
Why not one killer or hired gun has been
brought in to answer responsibility is a substantial piece of evidence that THE
DETECTIVE WORK IS NOT WORKING. Or if it
is, IT IS NO LESS THAN INCOMPETENCE.
To think,
the manner the death contracts were carried out is similar: all by
motorcycle-riding assassins.
Indeed,
gone are the days for the “Sherlock Holmes” policemen of the Manila’s Finest who
earned the reputation for crimes solved no matter how many years had passed.
The cops
now are complacent and incompetent.
They investigate half-heartedly and
do it only on the days when the murder is still being talked about in the
press.
They do not dig deep like what was
done in the investigation into the massacre of 57 persons, including 32
journalists (as the official figures at the moment), in the town of Ampatuan,
Maguindanao.
The cops and other law enforcement
agencies, including the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), are just good at
a sense of financial gain in the work they would decide to do.
The 12
journalists killed since Day 1 of the term of P-Noy are as follows:
1. July 3, 2010 --
75-year-old radio commentator and community journalist Jose Daguio was
shot dead at 8 p.m. while having a dinner inside his house in Barangay Tuga,
Tabuk, Kalinga. The police claimed he was killed by known cattle
rustlers.
2. July 9, 2010 --
Miguel Belen, field reporter of DWEB FM station in Nabua, Camarines Sur,
was shot at along Zone 3, Barangay San Jose Pagaraon, Nabua at 8:30 p.m.
3. August 1, 2010 – Edilberto
Cruz, publisher of Salida tabloid in Nueva Ecija, was shot in the evening
while driving a motorcycle along Maharlika Highway in Barangay San Juan Accfa,
Cabanatuan City
4. December 10, 2010 – Edison
Flameniana Sr., columnist of Mindanao Inquirer was shot dead on December 10, 2010 in
Tabudok, Labangan, Zamboanga del Sur
5. January 24, 2011 --
Dr. Gerry “Doc Gerry” Ortega was shot dead while inside an Ukay-Ukay
Store in Puerto Princesa, after coming from his radio program
6. February 1, 2011 – Cirilo
Gallardo, 38, a broadcaster of DWWW Spirit 96.9 FM and a teacher of the
Divine Word College, a resident of Barangay Velasco, Tayum, Abra, was found
dead with 13 stab wounds inside his room at the transmitter site of the radio
station in Barangay Bangbangar, Bangued, Abra.
7. March 24, 2011 – Len
Flores Somera was shot dead on the nape in Maysilo, Malabon City while she
was waiting for a ride to her radio program over DZME.
8. June 13, 2011 – Romeo
Olea, reporter-announcer of DWEB-FM based on Nabua town, who is also a
writer-reporter of Bicol Mail, a regional newspaper, was shot at 5:30 p.m.
while driving his motorcycle. The incident occurred in front of Holy
Child Learning Center at the Iriga-Nabua boundary while on his way to report to
work. He sustained two gunshot wounds in the stomach of a 9-mm gun.
9. August 22, 2011 – Niel Aranga Jimena was shot dead at 5:30 p.m. by two men riding in tandem on a
motorcycle while the victim was driving his own motorcycle in EB Magalona in
the direction of Bacolod City. A native of La Paz, Iloilo City who moved
to Hacienda Teresa in EB Magalona town was an anchorman at the defunct dyRP in
Iloilo and dyAG in Cadiz City. Moments before his death, Jimena was
preparing to broadcast as a block-timer at dyRI of Radio Mindanao Network
(RMN), according to his friend Larry Trinidad, a reporter of dyHB of RMN in
Bacolod. Police said that a brief chase occurred first before the
anchorman’s motorcycle fell on its side in Barangay 3, Poblacion in EB
Magalona. The police added that the victim appeared to be calling
for help when he was finally gunned down.
10. October 14, 2011 -- Datu Roy Quijada
Gallego was shot dead at 5:15 p.m. on national the highway in Sitio
Mamparasanon, Barangay Banahaw in Lianga, Surigao del Sur. A Manobo tribe
leader whose name with this indigenous group is Datu Bagtikan was the president
of Bayanihan Council of Datus (BACODA) in Caraga Region at the time of his
death. He used to deliver commentaries and public affairs programs on air
in Butuan City’s DXJM a.m. and DXSF in San Francisco, Agusan del Sur. His
wife Elisa said that he used to criticize the neglect of the tribesmen by the
National Commission on Indigenous Peoples (NCIP). In fact, BACODA filed
complaints against officials of the NCIP, Bureau of Mines and Geo-Sciences and
the Department of Environment and Natural Resources (DENR).
11. November 11, 2011 – Alfredo “Dodong” Velarde
Jr. was shot six times at 3:45 p.m. by one of the two motorcycle-riding men
just outside his office in General Santos City. The incident occurred
while Velarde and his companion were inside his pick-up vehicle parked just
outside the Brigada Complex Bldg. on NLSA Road, Bayanihan, Barangay San Isidro,
General Santos City and they were waiting for the security guard to open their
office. The companion was said to have escaped unharmed. He was the
circulation manager of Brigada News Philippines at the time of his death.
12. January 5, 2012 – Christopher Guarin was
shot several times until he was killed in the presence of his wife Lyn and
9-year-old daughter at 10:00 p.m. while he was driving to go to their home in
Sunrise Subdivision in Barangay Lagao, General Santos City. He was the
editor of Tatak tabloid newspaper and who was also working as a radio
commentator. He was said to be frequently receiving death threats, the
last of which he even read during his radio program, which message read: “If
you show up at the station tonight we’re going to kill you.” As is usual in
other slayings, two men on a motorcycle tried to overtake them while they were
near their subdivision, shortly after he fetched her from Tatak office.
Comments