Witness in journalist’s slay slain

DAVAO CITY—An eyewitness in the murder of one of the scores of journalists killed in a continuing era of impunity in the country was shot dead on Thursday, days after his enrollment in the justice department’s witness protection program (WPP) had been recommended for termination.

Ritchie Nacao Manapol, 34, who had been under the Department of Justice’s WPP, died of multiple gunshot wounds after he was attacked by at least three still unidentified men while watching a billiards game near Shrine Hills and MacArthur Highway in this city around 7 p.m.

Manapol saw the killing of Nestor Bedolido, who wrote for the weekly tabloid Kastigador in Digos City, on June 19, 2010.

Finished off 

A report by the Matina police station here said the three assailants of Manapol at first missed their target, allowing Manapol to run to the billiard hall’s kitchen. The assailants, however, chased Manapol and cornered him in the kitchen, where the three men finished him off, firing their handguns.

The gunmen fled on a motorcycle.

Justice Secretary Leila de Lima said Manapol was indeed covered by the WPP but had refused to relocate to a WPP safe house, prompting the recommendation to terminate his WPP coverage.

“If witnesses refuse to relocate to a TS (temporary shelter) despite earnest efforts to convince them to relocate, there is nothing we can do,” De Lima said in a text message.

“We are not jailers of our witnesses,” she said.

WPP conditions 

Witnesses covered by the WPP, De Lima added, “must abide by reasonable rules and regulations.”

Rose Bedolido, the slain journalist’s wife, said Manapol was a vital witness in the murder of her husband.

“I honestly do not know where this case is leading to now that the vital witness is dead,” said Rose.

Rose said Manapol dropped out of the WPP for still unclear reasons. What is clear, she said, was that Manapol’s killing benefits the brains behind her husband’s murder.

“They have killed my husband and now they have killed the eyewitness,” said Rose. “What more do they want?”

The Center for Media Freedom and Responsibility said Bedolido’s murder was apparently job-related, saying the slain journalist “had written several exposes [involving] a number of local politicians during the May (2010) elections.”

Suspected brains 

Four months after Bedolido’s death, the alleged gunman, Voltaire S. Mirafuentes, surrendered to the Philippine National Police, naming former Davao del Sur Gov. Douglas Cagas and Matanao Mayor Butch Fernandez as the alleged brains.

Both Cagas and Fernandez denied any involvement in the Bedolido murder.

The court later dismissed the case filed against Cagas and Fernandez, but the Bedolido family elevated it to the Court of Appeals. Germelina Lacorte, Inquirer Mindanao, with reports from Karlos Manlupig, Inquirer Mindanao, and Tarra Quismundo in Manila