WHAT WENT BEFORE
Before Romeo Olea, three other journalists were killed in cold blood since the beginning of the year.
Palawan broadcaster Gerardo Ortega, 47, was shot and killed by a lone gunman on Jan. 24 while shopping in a used-clothes store in Puerto Princesa City.
Ortega, called “Doc Gerry” by friends and colleagues, was the anchor of “Ramatak,” a primetime talk show of dwAR, an affiliate of Radyo Mo Nationwide (RMN).
The alleged gunman, Marlon Recamata Dichaves, was cornered at a nearby parking area by Ortega’s bodyguard and crewmen of a fire truck. An accomplice who allegedly served as a lookout during the shooting remained at large.
The gun used in the killing was traced to an aide of former Palawan Gov. Joel T. Reyes. Ortega had regularly criticized Reyes on the alleged misuse of royalty money from the Malampaya natural gas project in northern Palawan.
On Jan. 31, the decomposing body of broadcaster Cirilo Gallardo, 38, was found in his temporary shelter in Bangued, Abra. Police found Gallardo’s body with 13 stab wounds at the diocesan house for priests near the Abra Community Broadcasting Corp. transmitter site in Barangay Bangbangar.
Gallardo worked as an announcer and a disc jockey at the AM and FM stations, respectively, of the diocese-owned dzPA Puso ti Abra (Heart of Abra).
He was also an elementary teacher at Divine Word College of Bangued.
Police believed the motive of the killing was robbery as the victim’s room was ransacked and his desktop and laptop computers were missing.
On March 24, broadcaster Marlina “Len” Flores-Sumera, 45, was shot and killed a few meters away from her home in Malabon City as she was about to board a jeepney to work.
Sumera, who worked as a public service anchor since the early 1990’s, anchored radio station dzME’s “Arangkada 1530.”
According to police, the gunman was a professional hired killer who left no important clues at the crime scene, not even the empty slug from the unknown pistol, which he collected before leaving.
Days after the murder, President Aquino said he had received information that Sumera was killed in connection with a property dispute and “not because she was [a member of the] media.”
The President also said that police had identified and were in pursuit of Sumera’s killer. Inquirer Research Sources: Inquirer Archives, VERA Files
