Pastolero murder: Politics eyed

COTABATO CITY – Police are looking at "politics" as a possible motive in the murder of local newspaper publisher Hernani Pastolero.

Pastolero was gunned down in front of his house in nearby Sultan Kudarat, Shariff Kabunsuan last Monday.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, director of the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao (ARMM) police said Pastolero was "endorsing" a candidate for governor from the newly-created Shariff Kabunsuan province before he was shot.

Pastolero was a leader of a homeowners association in Barangay Bulalo, a district of mixed Muslim and Christian residents about two kilometers from this city.

"But we are not also discounting other angles in his killing. It could be related to his job as a journalist or his work as a community leader in Sultan Kudarat," Goltiao told reporters.

Pastolero, publisher of the weekly Lightning Courier, was not known to be a hard-hitting journalist.

Goltiao recently organized the Task Force Hernani headed by the Sultan Kudarat municipal police to probe the gunman’s identity and the motive for the killing. – John Unson