MANILA – Looks like resolving the cases of killed journalists is not the priority of Pres. Benigno Simeon Aquino III, according to Alab ng Mamamahayag (ALAM).
ALAM President Berteni Causing said April has the highest recorded events of killings of newsmen in one month since President Benigno Aquino took office on July 1, 2010.
“This is too revolting because there is no effort done to stop the assassins,” he said, adding Aquino is only good at running after grafters of past administration, but not the gunmen and brains who kill media men.
Causing said there is no other way of stopping the killing spree, but through efficient implementation of police detective work.
He said determined detective work will send fear to the minds of would-be brains and hired guns.
On April 8, reporter Aldion Layao, who took a leave from news work to serve as a barangay chairman of in Davao City, was killed by motorcycle-riding gunmen.
And on April 24, journalist Michael Jayson Calanasan, 36, was on his motorcycle with wife when gunmen, who were also tailing them on a motorcycle, shot him in the face in the village of Santa Monica in San Pablo City in Laguna province and died while being treated in the hospital.
Bombo Radyo’s Rommel Palma was also shot dead in front of South Cotabato Provincial Hospital in Koronadal City in South Cotabato province.
On January 5, Tatak newspaper editor Christopher Guarin was slain when a motorcycle gunmen shot the car he was driving near his home in Sunshine Subdivision in Lagao village in General Santos City in Mindanao.
On March 2, Iloilo Aksyon Radio blocktimer Fernando Gavio was shot by unidentified men. The 60-year-old former Radio Mindanao Network-Iloilo program director was rushed to Iloilo Mission Hospital and survived.
In March 11, Pangasinan veteran print journalist Jaime Aquino was shot in Bayambang town in Pangasinan province in northern Luzon. Gunmen also shot and wounded Daily Tribune reporter Fernan Angeles near his house in Manila.
ALAM Chairman and National Press Club President Jerry Yap said the never-ending story of killings committed against journalists and the apparent indifference to their welfare, has been placed in a quagmire of confusion, wondering whether press freedom is important to Aquino despite the fact that it helped him much in his campaign for the presidency and in his war against corruption.
The complete list of 13 journalists killed since Day 1 of the term of P-Noy is as follows: July 3, 2010, Jose Daguio; July 9, 2010, Miguel Belen; August 1, 2010, Edilberto Cruz; December 10, 2010, Edison Flameniana Sr.; January 24, 2011, Dr. Gerry “Doc Gerry” Ortega; February 1, 2011 – Cirilo Gallardo; March 24, 2011, Len Flores Somera; June 13, 2011, Romeo Olea; August 22, 2011, Niel Aranga Jimena; October 14, 2011, Datu Roy Quijada Gallego; November 11, 2011, Alfredo “Dodong” Velarde; January 5, 2012, Christopher Guarin; April 8, 2012, Aldion Layao; April 24, 2012, Michael Jayson Calanasan; and April 30, 2012, Rommel Palma.
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