4 charged in Ilocos radioman’s killing

LAOAG CITY — A government employee and three street thugs are facing murder charges for the killing of Ilocos Norte broadcaster Andres Acosta last Dec. 20.

Senior Superintendent Roman Felix, Ilocos Norte police director, said murder cases were filed with the provincial prosecutor’s office against Joseph Caldazo, an employee of the Department of Agriculture; Nemesio Agbanaoag, Adulf Calzado, and Gilbert Tarubac.

They were accused of ganging up on Acosta, 46, of dzJC Aksyon Radyo, an affiliate of the Manila Broadcasting Company, while he was heading home to Batac town on board his motorcycle from a Christmas party in Laoag City.

Despite his three stab wounds, Acosta still managed to bring himself to the Mariano Marcos Memorial Hospital, also in Batac, where he later died.

Except for Joseph Calzado, the suspects are all street thugs who, according to Superintendent Ben Rayco, Batac police chief, were having a drinking spree at Calzado’s house along the national highway in Dariwdiw, Batac town when Acosta passed by.

Felix said Acosta’s slay was not politically motivated nor work-related, belying earlier suspicions that it could be linked to an earlier court case he was involved in and even to his hard-hitting commentaries on air.

"It was just an ordinary street crime," Felix said.

Rayco, however, said that prior to the incident, Acosta had investigated several incidents of stoning of motorists by thugs in the same area where he was attacked.

Acosta was the 12th journalist killed in 2006, the 48th under the administration of President Arroyo and the 85th since the restoration of democracy in 1986 after the fall of the Marcos dictatorship.