Countdown on for arrest of scribe’s killers

An umbrella organization of print and broadcast journalists kicked off yesterday a countdown for the arrest of the mastermind and alleged triggerman of last year’s killing of Pagadian City mediaman Edgar Damalerio.

The Freedom Fund for Filipino Journalists Inc. (FFFJI) also launched a fund-raiser to support the families of journalists slain in the line of duty.

Since 1986, 37 Filipino journalists have been killed, and the FFFJI lamented that "no case has been prosecuted with satisfaction."

The FFFJI’s moves came on the heels of World Press Freedom Day (May 1-3) and six days before Damalerio’s first death anniversary.

Damalerio’s widow, Maria Gemma, renewed her call to the Philippine National Police and other law enforcement agencies for the immediate arrest of dismissed policeman Guillermo Wapille, accused of killing her husband, and unmasking of the murder brains.

Damalerio, 32, was shot dead on May 13 last year while driving his owner-type jeep, with two friends as passengers, near the Pagadian City Hall and the police headquarters.

Mrs. Damalerio said her husband had been vocal against illegal gambling, illegal drugs and graft and corruption in his tri-media work as commentator of radio station dxKP-Pagadian, managing editor of Zamboanga Scribe and host of a cable TV program, Enkwentro (Encounter).

She said Wapille has reportedly been sighted in Pagadian City almost weekly, but still police have not arrested him.

Redmond Batario, of the Center for Community Journalism and Development, said Damalerio’s editor Hernan de la Cruz and a colleague have received death threats through text messages since Damalerio’s murder.

PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. has issued new orders to Chief Superintendent Reynaldo Varilla, newly designated Western Mindanao police director, to arrest Wapille.

Cerge Remonde, chairman of FFFJI and the Kapisanan ng mga Brodkaster ng Pilipinas (KBP), vowed to help the Damalerio family in getting justice.

"We will not allow any violence against any of us to go unpunished," he said.

The members of the FFFJI are the Center for Community Journalism and Development, Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR), KBP, Philippine Center for Investigative Journalism, Philippine Press Institute, and Ermin Garcia Jr. and Danilo Gozo, publishers of Sunday Punch and Philippine News, respectively.

The FFFJI said attacks against Filipino journalists and news organizations have received "scant notice" in the country although international groups monitor them.

These foreign groups include the Committee to Protect Journalists, International Freedom of Expression eXchange, Reporters Sans Frontieres, Article XIX and Southeast Asian Press Alliance.

According to the FFFJI, 54 Filipino journalists have been killed since 1961, and only two of the cases have been solved — the killings of Antonio Abad on July 3, 1961 and Ermin Garcia Sr. on May 20, 1966.

"Justice is not really served in any of these cases, and we need all journalists’ attention to focus on these issues," said Melinda Quintos de Jesus, CMFR executive director.