Media slays ‘beyond loss of life’
Senators and Human Rights Watch (HRW) on Friday condemned the killing of a female tabloid reporter in Bataan province, yet another proof media killings had become “shockingly routine.”
“I condemn any killing more so when the victim is silenced by reason of her work conviction to bring to light corrupt and evil deeds of abusive people in power,” Sen. Grace Poe said in a text message.
The murder of a journalist “goes beyond mere loss of life as it gravely threatens the fundamental freedom upon which the survival of our fragile democracy rests,” she added.
Poe chairs the committee on public information and mass media.
Sen. Loren Legarda agreed: “We should all condemn the brutal, relentless killings of media men and bring to light all those fallen by a bullet, and compel our law enforcement agencies to protect its citizens.”
Police probe
Abante reporter Nerlita Ledesma, 47, was shot dead while waiting for a ride to the Bataan provincial capitol in Balanga City, where she worked as a casual employee of the public information office.
Police in Central Luzon, however, said initial investigation showed that the killing of Ledesma may not be related to her work, but her role as the head of a local homeowners’ association.
Chief Supt. Ronald Santos, officer in charge of the Central Luzon police, said Ledesma’s group, composed of 200 families, was working with the National Housing Authority to legalize the group’s ownership of a 5-hectare land in Balanga City.
P100,000 reward
Bataan Gov. Albert Garcia offered a P100,000 reward for information that would lead to the arrest of the killers.
The Bataan police would not confirm reports that a suspect in the killing had been arrested.
Santos said Ledesma “has not been so active in the media.” “She had no enemies among the police or local leaders. She was a friendly person,” he said.
He said information gathered by investigators suggested Ledesma was killed because of her work as president of Tagnai Homeowners Association (THOA).
THOA is seeking to own a lot in Sitio Tagnai, Barangay Tuyo, in Balanga City, according to Senior Supt. Rodel Sermonia, Bataan police director.
As president of the group, she collected monthly dues from members, remitting the money to the landowner, Leonardo David, Sermonia said.
In the process, Ledesma did not have good rapport with barangay officials, he said.
But Juliet de Coza Cudia, senior reporter of Abante and Abante Tonite, said she believed the attack was media-related. “If Nerlie [Ledesma] was not a media personality, her fellow villagers would not have chosen her as their president. They trusted her and she did not let them down,” Cudia said in an interview here.
Sermonia said Ledesma had a rival for the leadership of THOA but he did not elaborate. He said Ledesma had been waiting for the promulgation of a case of physical injury she filed against her rival’s daughter.
Ledesma retired as a regular Abante reporter in 2011, preferring to work as its Bataan correspondent, according to Cudia.
Witness
Santos said investigators were hoping to get the mastermind soon after a witness cooperated to produce a sketch of the gunman. This witness knew Ledesma and had seen the face of the gunman who shot Ledesma four times in the chest as she walked 30 meters from her house.
That Ledesma’s killing occurred a day after the attack on the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo that left 12 dead wasn’t lost on Phelim Kine, deputy director for HRW’s Asia Division.
“But while the atrocity in Paris was a shockingly unprecedented attack on media for France, killings of journalists in the Philippines have become shockingly routine,” Kine said in a statement.
“Adding insult to fatal injury” is the government failure to solve the killings, he said.
So far, police have made arrests in only six cases, and in only two of these cases had the gunmen been convicted, leaving the masterminds on the loose, Kine said.
Poe said she would confront top Philippine National Police officials when her committee on public order resumes its hearings on police matters.
She said she had a standing directive to PNP officials to provide her updates on the killings of journalists.
