MANILA, Philippines?Whistleblowers in various scandals that have rocked the Arroyo administration Tuesday came out to demand justice for the killing over a week ago of Wilfredo ?Boy? Mayor, a witness in Senate investigations into illegal gambling payoffs.

The whistleblowers?Sandra Cam, Dante Madriaga, Vidal Doble, Jose Barredo and Rodolfo Lozada?appeared together at the Church-organized Illustrado Forum in Manila Tuesday to show that though the death of Mayor had shaken them, they would not back down from their decisions to tell the truth.

In Senate investigations in the past years, Cam and Mayor implicated the President?s husband, Jose Miguel Arroyo, in illegal ?Jueteng payoffs. Madriaga, together with Lozada, spoke out on alleged bribery and kickbacks in the National Broadband Network deal with the Chinese telecom firm ZTE Corp. Doble released the controversial ?Hello, Garci? tape that caught the President apparently talking about a million-count vote lead with an elections commissioner; and Barredo testified on the alleged use of P728 fertilizer funds for election purposes.

The group was joined by Archbishop Emeritus Oscar Cruz, who stressed that choosing to ?spill the beans? was not something done on a whim.

?They are risking their lives, which is why I salute them. They are here to show that they are not scared that easily,? Cruz said.

Mayor was shot dead by two motorcycle-riding men on Feb. 28 as he walked out of a casino in Pasay City.

Cam said the police should look into two possible motives for Mayor?s murder. One is the possibility that it was connected to a public works scam that he had been planning to expose. Another is that the ambush may have been done by the enemies he had made in the world of the illegal numbers game jueteng.

While it could not be discounted that he was killed for other reasons, the possibility that his death was connected to his whistleblowing activities should be seriously looked into, Cam said.

Missing Sen. Lacson

Cam scored the lack of sustained official support for whistleblowers.

In fact, she said, she was ?missing Sen. Panfilo Lacson,? whom she described as a staunch supporter of whistleblowers.

Lacson fled the country early this year apparently to evade a warrant for his arrest in connection with the Dacer-Corbito double-murder case.

Cam said his absence has robbed them of one significant source of moral and financial support.

The witnesses were one in saying that life has been hard since they decided to expose alleged wrongdoing.

With Lacson on the run, there was no high official that they could easily turn to, Barredo lamented.

Barredo said Lacson had been helpful in providing him with financial assistance, since he had a heart ailment and diabetes. Barredo said other senators had also lent a hand, but Lacson was the most consistent.

Madriaga said the Association of Major Religious Superiors in the Philippines have also been helping his children.

Doble said Lacson was the one who had taken him in when he decided to speak out on the alleged cheating in the 2004 polls.

?When I revealed the Garci tape, my life became abnormal. It was not just me, but my parents as well, who had a hard time. Senator Lacson took me in but since he?s not around, difficult times are upon us,? he said.

Said Cam: ?There is no more big person to help us, so we are on our own. People like us are to be pitied because we are the ones who exposed wrongdoing, but we are the ones treated as enemies and whose lives are threatened.?