DOJ orders police: Arrest Esperat slay masterminds

GENERAL SANTOS CITY — The Department of Justice has ordered the police to arrest the suspected masterminds in the March 24 killing of Sultan Kudarat newspaper columnist Marlene Esperat.

Justice Secretary Raul Gonzales said he has already ordered Chief Superintendent Antonio Billones, Region 12 police director, to arrest the people behind the Esperat killing who have gone into hiding after learning they have been implicated.

"These suspected masterminds were summoned to appear in our office to shed light on the murder case ... but no one has done so," Gonzales told The STAR in a cellular phone interview.

Gonzales said the masterminds, whom he refused to identify, can no longer leave the country since the Bureau of Immigration has issued hold departure orders for them.

Asked why the alleged masterminds are still scot-free, Gonzales said it is now the duty of the police to effect their arrest.

"Yes, I have already talked with Secretary Gonzales and he directed me to apprehend the alleged masterminds but the police cannot do it because we have no arrest warrant," Billones said.

No Arrest Warrant

Besides, Billones said a team of prosecutors from Manila still has to finish the preliminary investigation before the court can issue an arrest warrant.

Meanwhile, the family of a military intelligence agent who executed an extra-judicial confession to prosecutors pinpointing the alleged masterminds in the Esperat killing, has been placed under the DOJ’s witness protection program.

"We have already provided protection to Rowie Burwa and financial assistance to his family. (They) are now (in a) DOJ safehouse because anything can happen to them," Gonzales said.

He clarified that Burwa cannot turn "state witness" because he is one of the accused "but the department has to exhaust all means to protect him and his family because he might be killed."

In his confession, Burwa tagged two ranking officials of the Department of Agriculture (DA), one of them said to be a relative of an Army general in Mindanao, as the ones who allegedly masterminded the Esperat killing.

During police interrogation, Burwa and three other suspects — Randy Grecia, Jerry Cabayog and Estanislao Bismanos — admitted they were given P120,000 by a certain "Madam" to kill Esperat, who had exposed irregularities in the DA’s Region 12 office in her column in Midland Review, a community paper based in Tacurong City, Sultan Kudarat.

A DOJ official, however, said he cannot understand why Superintendent Danilo Galapon of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group in Region 12 has reportedly been hesitant in turning over Burwa to the DOJ.

"Burwa must also be sent to DOJ Manila for proper protection because the people he pinpointed as brains of the killing are very powerful and have private armies... who anytime can use their money to silence him," a DOJ insider said.

Esperat was gunned down inside her home in Tacurong City on Maundy Thursday.

New Wave Of Threats

In a related development, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) urged the leadership of the Philippine National Police (PNP) yesterday to immediately initiate an investigation into what it claimed to be a new wave of death threats and intimidation against media practitioners.

The NUJP cited reports that four journalists have been getting "very serious" threats, namely John Paul Tia, station manager of MBC-Aksyon Radyo in Iloilo City; Gilbert Bayoran, Negros Defense Press Corps president and Visayan Daily Star reporter; broadcaster Annie Calderon, and Louie Logarta of Daily Tribune.

In a letter to PNP chief Director General Arturo Lomibao, Inday Espina-Varona, NUJP chairwoman, and Jose Torres Jr., chairman of NUJP’s committee to protect journalists, challenged the PNP top brass to launch a "no-nonsense probe" into the alleged threats.

"Lomibao (should) live up to his claim of being a friend of press freedom by immediately ordering protection for threatened journalists from Region 6 (Western Visayas) and Metro Manila," the NUJP leaders said.

According to the NUJP, what is more alarming in the reports is that active and retired senior police officers were allegedly involved in the incidents. — With Katherine Adraneda and Artemio Dumlao