Cops say they have witnesses in murder of Aurora journalist

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — Witnesses to Tuesday’s killing of a newspaper publisher in Aurora province could provide leads to help track down two suspects, police officials here said yesterday.

Provincial police director Senior Superintendent Amador Pabustan said the witnesses’ sketch of the gunman and his lookout will come out anytime soon. He refused to divulge further details.

Pabustan noted that residences in the area where Philip Agustin, publisher and editor of the Starline Times Recorder, was shot dead were closely clustered.

Agustin, 53, was gunned down late at night possibly through the window of the kitchen area of his home in Barangay Paltik in Dingalan town. He died on the way to the hospital.

At this time, however, there are no strong leads in solving the fifth murder of a Filipino journalist this year, though several angles were being considered.

Pabustan told The STAR in an interview that investigators see "vendetta" as a motive for the killing of Agustin.

He pointed out there is a "probable angle" that the murder was in retaliation for the victim’s involvement in allegedly anomalous real estate transactions at the Bay View Subdivision owned by the Buencamino family in Barangay Paltik. The victim’s daughter denies this.

Pabustan raised the theory that communist rebels may have been involved, adding victims of the land deal could have sought the help of the New People’s Army (NPA) to get rid of Agustin.

On the other hand, one of the investigators of Task Force Agustin, formed specifically to solve the case, said they are closely investigating a political angle involving Dingalan Mayor Jaime Ilarde.

"The TF (task force) is currently giving more weight to the exposé of Agustin against Ilarde on the alleged irregularities in handling disaster funds which was carried in the latest edition of the community paper owned by the victim," one of the investigators told reporters on condition of anonymity.

Agustin’s paper had recently published reports on alleged anomalies in the municipal government, including purportedly missing funds. The reports suggested Ilarde was accountable.

Ilarde denies having any hand in the murder, saying he was against violence. He said the reports have "hurt me so much" that his lawyers are completing documentation for the filing of a libel case against the paper.

Nonetheless, Central Luzon police director Chief Superintendent Alejandro Lapinid said Ilarde will still be questioned in the killing.

He said Councilor Valentino Lapus of Dingalan was already interrogated by probers amid reports that he had warned Agustin about threats to his safety.

The shooting occurred only a few minutes after Lapus had drinks with Agustin at the victim’s house, Lapinid noted.

Lapinid went to Dingalan yesterday to conduct further inquiries. He said the victim’s daughter, Rosevel Agustin-Cruz, insisted that the killing of her father was perpetrated by local political leaders. The daughter was scooping rice in the kitchen while his father was at the dining table when the shots came in through the window.

"The daughter denied reports that many people were angry at her father over a report on anomalous land deals," Lapinid said, citing reports that about 200 families were affected by the land deals at the subdivision.

For his part, however, Pabustan said that over 400 families were allegedly swindled in the land deal transactions.

"It seems he (Agustin) sold properties in the subdivision even without the knowledge of the subdivision owner," Pabustan said.

"We have confirmed that the anomaly was already brought to the level of the Department of Justice," he said, noting "the transactions he made involved huge sums which mostly poor families forked out."

If the allegedly deprived families had sought the help of the NPA, he said the killing of Agustin might have been meted out as punishment by the rebel movement’s kangaroo court.

Pabustan said the NPA had become quite active in Aurora. "Our reports indicate that sightings of rebels are not only in groups of 50, but in groups of 100 people."

Cantoneros’ Killer

Agustin was the fifth provincial journalist to be killed this year. Last week, radio commentator Klein Cantoneros was shot dead in Dipolog City. A police sketch of the second suspect in Cantoneros’ murder on April 29 was released yesterday based on eyewitness accounts.

The suspect in Cantoneros’ murder was described by witnesses as having curly hair, dark skin and a mustache.

He is said to be about 25 to 27 years old and about 5’5" in height, said Sr. Supt. Pedro Tango, chief of Task Force Newsman.

The witnesses saw the suspects while inside a restaurant the other witness saw the suspicious men as they left, Tango said.

Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Director General Arturo Lomibao is hoping to solve the killing of Cantoneros as swiftly as the solution of journalist Marlene Esperat’s ambush in Tacurong City last April.

"We remain very confident that soon enough we shall be able to crack the case with the same professional efficiency as we solved the murder of Tacurong City journalist Marlene Esperat," Lomibao said.

Lomibao was referring to the arrest of four men and the filing of charges against them and another couple, tagged as the masterminds behind the March 24 ambush of the Midland Review reporter. The New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) has listed the Philippines as the "most murderous" country for reporters in the world. It condemned Agustin’s death, noting this was the second murder of a journalist in the country in less than one week.

Since democracy was restored in the Philippines in 1986, a total of 68 journalists have been killed — 23 of them in the past three years alone, the National Union of Journalists in the Philippines said. — With reports from Rick Sapnu, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Marvin Sy