Jess Malabanan
The Philippine National Police has filed a murder complaint against two suspects in the killing of Pampanga-based journalist Jesus “Jess” Malabanan in Samar province in December last year, a Malacañang official said on Wednesday.
Undersecretary Joel Sy Egco, head of the Presidential Task Force on Media Security (PTFoMS), said the PNP’s Special Investigation Task Group “successfully completed” its probe by filing the murder case against Aries Solomon and Jerry Trinidad in the Calbayog City prosecutor’s office on Wednesday, even as the suspects were still at large.
“I commend the men and women of the PNP who worked tirelessly in the investigation into the killing of my colleague and friend, Jess Malabanan. We are very grateful for your swift and thorough work in identifying the perpetrators of this heinous crime,” Egco said in a statement.
Motive
He, however, did not say how the two men were connected to the killing or if they were involved in a land dispute that Malabanan helped resolve for farmers in Calbayog, his hometown.Police Lt. Aileen Velarde, information officer of the Samar provincial police, said the motive in the killing was land dispute and not related to Malabanan’s job as a journalist.
“Our probe showed that the killing of Malabanan was not related to his being a journalist but due to a land dispute that resulted in [a] personal grudge,” Velarde said.
Investigators, however, could not say if the suspects were members of a gun-for-hire group.
Velarde said Malabanan helped some people in Barangay San Joaquin, Tinambacan District, who were involved in a land conflict. Egco said both men lived in Tinambacan.
On Dec. 8 last year, Malabanan was visiting his sick mother in Calbayog and was watching over the family store when he was attacked around 6 p.m. His widow, Mila, said her husband was shot at close range in the head.
Footage taken from security cameras helped identify the suspects. Police said Solomon shot and killed Malabanan while Trinidad drove the getaway motorcycle.
Find mastermind
Velarde said Solomon and Trinidad were also identified by witnesses as the same persons who conspired in killing Malabanan. She did not provide details about the plot.In a text message on Thursday, Mila told the Inquirer that she was hoping that the suspects and the still unnamed mastermind would be arrested soon.
The 58-year-old veteran journalist wrote for international news wire Reuters, Manila Standard Today and Bandera. Malabanan covered the defense beat until the 1990s before he moved to Angeles City in Pampanga, where he became a member of Pampanga Press Club (PPC).
According to Egco, Malabanan was planning to retire in Samar to oversee his farm.
In 2019, Malabanan had told his PPC colleagues that he assisted several farmers in settling a land dispute in Calbayog.
PPC members have asked Egco to identify and jail the mastermind. Egco earlier said that “somebody powerful” was behind the suspects.
Although Malabanan received threats in 2017 while working on a story for Reuters and was given police security by the PTFoMS at that time, Egco said his death could not be immediately linked to his work as a journalist.
Malabanan’s close friends and colleagues said he had no known enemies and was not a hard-hitting journalist, supporting Egco’s statement that the killing was not work-related.
Egco said at least 68 “media killers” had been convicted by different courts in the country as of 2021.