Esperat’s lawyer receives threats

Koronadal City — The lawyer of the family of slain Sultan Kudarat journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat said she will not be cowed by death threats and will continue to defend the case.

Legal counsel Nena Santos was reacting to the alleged statement of a ranking official of the Department of Agriculture (DA) in Central Mindanao that advised her "to lay off" the Esperat case.

Esperat, a hard-hitting columnist of the weekly paper Midland Review, was gunned down by a lone assassin inside her house in Tacurong City on the night of Maundy Thursday while having dinner with her two children.

So far, four persons have been arrested and are presently detained at the Tacurong City jail. They are scheduled to be transferred to the Bureau of Jail Management and Penology (BJMP) in Cebu City after the Supreme Court granted the request of Santos to transfer the venue of the trial.

"Nobody can stop me from representing the case of Marlene Esperat. I’m not intimidated by death threats or words of discouragement," Santos said. — Ramil Bajo