Mayor’s name scrapped from list of suspects in journalist’s slay

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga — The name of Dingalan, Aurora Mayor Jaime Ylarde has apparently been dropped from the list of suspects named by a witness to the murder of community journalist Philip Agustin, officials said yesterday.

Potential star witness Reynaldo Morete, who admitted his role in the shooting of Agustin last May 10, identified his cousin Noli "Boyet" Morete and Emmanuel Alday as the main suspects in his official statement to the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI).

"There was no mention at all of the mayor in his sworn statement that was furnished us by the NBI," "Task Force Agustin" chief Senior Superintendent Perfecto Palad told The STAR.

Had the statement mentioned Ylarde’s involvement, the NBI could have included the mayor in the murder case it filed earlier against the Morete cousins and Alday before the Dingalan municipal court, he added.

Morete’s three-page affidavit contradicted earlier reports from the NBI that had Morete quoting his cousin as saying Agustin was to be killed because he had made the mayor angry.

Boyet and Alday are still at large, reportedly hiding out in the mountains of Mayantoc, Tarlac. Policemen from the task force have withdrawn from the area after days of fruitless searching, leaving their mission in the hands of civilian volunteers who reside in the vicinity.

Morete’s statement was released after Aurora police chief Senior Superintendent Amador Pabustan said he considered the Agustin case solved following Morete’s arrest last May 14 and the identification of the two other suspects. This, he said, is because all the requirements to build up a murder case before the court were already present.

Agustin, publisher and editor of the Starline Times Recorder, had exposed anomalies allegedly involving local officials in Dingalan prior to being shot dead while having a late dinner at his home in Barangay Paltic, Dingalan.

During the past two days, The STAR has been trying to track down NBI officials in Cabanatuan City and at the NBI regional office at Clark Field in Pampanga, but was told no official was available to be interviewed about the Agustin case.

Ylarde, who voluntarily appeared at NBI offices earlier this week to answer questions about the case, has insisted he had nothing to do with Agustin’s murder and that the suspects could have carried out the killing on their own. He admitted personally knowing the two suspects still at large.

Palad said as of yesterday, task force policemen moved to Barangay Dueg in San Clemente, Tarlac, which is adjacent to the town of Mayantoc.

"We got information that one of the suspects visited a house in Dueg," he said, adding that his task force will remain in constant communication with the civilian volunteers.

Earlier, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) took issue with Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye’s claim that a majority of the cases involving journalist killings had been solved, noting the "universal definition" of a solved case is one in which a suspect is convicted.

The NUJP also criticized the police for considering a case "closed" once the suspects are identified, even if no arrests had been made.

On World Press Freedom Day last May 13, the New York-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) classified the Philippines as "the most murderous country" for journalists, followed by Iraq, Colombia, Bangladesh and Russia.

The CPJ was created in 1981 by a group of American foreign correspondents "in response to the often brutal treatment of their foreign colleagues by authoritarian governments and other enemies of independent journalism."

The committee noted that in more than 85 percent of cases of journalists killed worldwide, the perpetrators were never punished.

"The five most murderous countries have the worst records. Of the 58 murders in those nations, all have been committed with impunity. Alleged gunmen have been arrested and charged in a small handful of cases, but no charges have ever been brought against those who directed the killings," the CPJ said.