Ilocos media men pin hope on President Aquino to bring justice to radioman’s slay

LAOAG CITY—Members of media organizations in Ilocos Norte remain hopeful that the seven-year-old murder case of radio commentator Roger Mariano would be given closure under the Aquino administration.

On July 31, officers of the Media Active in Ilocos Norte (Main) visited the site in Barangay Barabar in San Nicolas town where Mariano was slain while he was on his way home on the same day in 2004.

They lighted seven candles to symbolize how long the murder has remained unsolved.

Melvin de la Cuesta, former Main president, said the group is pinning its hopes on President Aquino’s promise to resolve extrajudicial killings in the country and put an end to impunity.

“We are confident with [Mr. Aquino’s] commitment to bring justice to the families of slain journalists and put an end to media killings,” he said.

A former policeman and another suspect who were the principal accused in the murder were acquitted in August 2010.

Judge Reynaldo Alhambra of the Manila Regional Trial Court found no evidence directly linking Apolonio Medrano, a former policeman, and Basilio Yadao to the case which dragged for six years until it was terminated with the suspects’ acquittal.

But De la Cuesta said the murder case remains open until the real perpetrators are identified.

“Investigators should pursue other angles which could lead into the identification of those who masterminded the murder,” he said.

De la Cuesta has been leading media workers in the province in marking Mariano’s murder since 2004. He initiated the building of a press freedom marker on a lot donated by San Nicolas Mayor Alfredo Valdez Jr., on the same spot where Mariano was gunned down.

Mariano was the first Ilocos Norte radio commentator felled by assassins’ bullets in what authorities believe was a result of his exposés on his radio program.

A list compiled by the the media watchdog Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility (CMFR) showed that 179 Filipino journalists were killed from 1986 to July 2011. It said 121 died “in the line of duty” or whose deaths were considered work-related.

In the year that Mariano was killed, 14 other journalists were murdered in the country. Eight deaths, including Mariano’s, were work-related.

The CMFR list showed that the highest number of work-related deaths of journalists, at 79, was recorded under the nine-year administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo from January 2001 to June 2010.

Four journalists had been killed under the administration of President Aquino from July 2010 to July 2011, the CMFR said.