Radio broadcaster shot dead in Palawan

A radio broadcaster and former Puerto Princesa City vice mayor was gunned down yesterday in that city, becoming the latest victim in a string of killings of journalists and activists, officials said.

Fernando Batul was driving to his radio station in Puerto Princesa when two men on a motorcycle shot him four times, City Mayor Edward Hagedorn and radio reports said.

Police said Batul, who would have turned 37 today, was driving his multi-cab car on his way to work at about 6:30 a.m. when two gunmen on an XRM Honda motorcycle — variously reported as red or blue — blocked his path at Manalo and Valencia streets and shot him several times. Both gunmen reportedly wore helmets. They escaped toward the city proper.

Bystander Ferdinand Pajeles, who witnessed the killing, said the suspects wore baseball caps. He also said two other men riding on another motorcycle served as "lookouts."

Batul sustained at least 12 gunshot wounds to his face and chest from 9-mm. and caliber .45 pistols. He was pronounced dead on arrival by doctors at the MMG-Palawan Cooperative Hospital.

A commentator for local radio station dyPR said Batul had aired criticisms of the city government over the contracts of Filipino workers it deployed to Taiwan and had earned officials’ ire for interviewing local communist guerrillas, the Philippine-based Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) said.

Lenny Escaro, staff reporter for dyPR, told The STAR in a phone interview that Batul was a hard-hitting broadcaster who often tackled issues of corruption in government, politics, the military’s security lapses in handling insurgents, and corrupt media practitioners in Palawan.

Asked what Batul had discussed on his radio program "Bastonero" before he was killed, Escaro said he "was attacking the illegal recruitment made by Puerto Princesa City’s Public Employment Services Office (PESO)."

Batul criticized PESO for charging job applicants P50,000 for tourist visas to work in Taiwan, Escaro said, adding that "all the while, people thought they were being given working visas." PESO is under the control of the city government.

Palawan police director Superintendent Elpidio de Asis said Batul had received numerous death threats before he was killed.

Last month, two unexploded hand grenades were found in front of Batul’s home, with a note warning his family would be harmed if he continued with his critical commentaries, the CMFR said. Police safely detonated the grenades and no one was hurt.

The police recovered written notes that came with the grenades. One read, "p...ina ka, nakakamatay ang masyadong madaldal (Talking too much can kill you)!" and the other read "Masyado ka na, sumosobra ka na. Initial pa lang ito pag hindi ka tumigil bahala ka na sa buhay mo (You’re pushing it. This is just an initial warning and if you don’t stop, your life could be at stake)."

De Asis said they have yet to gather more leads before they could establish a motive for Batul’s murder.

Malacañang condemned Batul’s killing and directed authorities to hasten their investigation and bring his killers to justice.

"Any killing, whether against a member of media or any member of society, is condemned because this is also an attack against civilized society," Press Secretary Ignacio Bunye said.

He added that President Arroyo has tasked the Philippine National Police to solve Batul’s murder.

Hagedorn — who told Manila radio dzMM that Batul was a strident critic whom he himself had sued for libel — offered P500,000 of his own money as a reward for the capture of the killers and ordered police to solve the case in 48 hours or face dismissal.

Hagedorn is currently in Metro Manila undergoing a medical checkup.

"I had been dreading that this would happen," he said over dzRH radio.

"I had appealed to his relatives to convince him to hire bodyguards because he has many enemies," Hagedorn said as he denied any involvement in the ambush. "I was afraid some of these people would take advantage of our personal quarrel."

Batul was the former vice mayor of the city, but was unseated when the current vice mayor, Lucilo Bayron, won an electoral protest, Hagedorn said. Bayron was Hagedorn’s running mate.

Hagedorn said while Batul had been his critic for years, he has learned to live with the criticism.

"In fact, I dropped a multimillion-peso libel case I filed against him after I won the recall election in 2002. I have forgiven him for his personal attacks against me and my family a long time ago and respect his views as a news commentator," he said.

Hagedorn said authorities are also looking into Batul’s connection with leftist groups. A police official was recently killed by suspected New People’s Army guerrillas and Batul even interviewed NPA spokesman Gregorio Rosal about the killing.

When Hagedorn was asked about the possibility that Batul was killed to embarrass him for his crusade against the illegal numbers game jueteng, he said he was "afraid they can do it just to embarrass me. They might even hire somebody to put the blame on me." — Arnell Ozaeta, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Ed Amoroso, Paolo Romero, AP, AFP