Three of four suspects in Esperat’s slay sentenced to life terms

Three men were each sentenced to 40 years in prison yesterday after a Cebu City court convicted them of the 2005 murder of journalist Marlene Garcia-Esperat.

A fourth accused, military intelligence officer Rowie Barua, was acquitted for insufficient evidence.

Prosecutors asked the court to discharge Barua as one of the accused.

However, the court did not resolve the motion until the case was submitted for decision last July because of the prosecution’s pending appeal before the Court of Appeals on the court’s findings that Barua’s testimony was not necessary to prosecute Estanislao Bismanos, Gerry Cabayag and Randy Grecia, who had pleaded guilty to Esperat’s murder.

The three convicted killers called Barua’s acquittal an "injustice" because they claimed the Army sergeant was the one who hired them to kill Esperat.

Judge Eric Menchavez of the Cebu City regional trial court said he would have imposed the death penalty on Bismanos, Cabayag and Grecia had Congress not abolished capital punishment.

Esperat was killed in Tacurong City in Sultan Kudarat, but the trial was held in Cebu City on order of the Supreme Court.

The motive for the killing of Esperat, who was a radio broadcaster and publisher of a local newspaper called the Midland Review, was not established in the trial.

Prosecutors initially charged six people with murder, including Osmena Montañer, a regional finance officer of the agriculture department, and the department’s chief regional accountant Estrella Sabay.

Esperat had accused both officials of corruption in her broadcasts, but the state prosecutor eventually dropped the charges against them, on grounds that the evidence against them had been illegally obtained.

The two officials had been implicated in the murder through the confessions of Bismanos and Barua, but the prosecutor ruled that the depositions could not be used in the trial because they were obtained in the absence of the arrested defendants’ lawyers.

Barua had been employed as Sabay’s bodyguard.

Yesterday, Justice Secretary Raul Gonzalez ordered state prosecutors to file murder charges against Montañer and Sabay.

"I have directed the prosecutors to immediately submit a motion to reinstate (Montañer and Sabay) as accused and to ask for the issuance of warrant for their arrest so that they can be brought to court for trial," he said.

The jailing of the three defendants, along with the earlier jailing of police officer Guillermo Wapile for the murder of journalist Edgar Damalerio, showed the government’s resolve to curb extra-judicial killings, Gonzalez said.

The court also ordered Bismanos, Cabayag and Grecia to pay P175,000 as indemnities and damages to Esperat’s heirs.

Clad in black shirts emblazoned with the word in yellows: "Justice for Marlene Esperat," the slain journalist’s four children were almost in tears when they faced the media after the court’s decision was promulgated.

Valmie Mariveles, who now stands as mother to her slain sister’s children, said that until now they still cannot forgive the accused.

"Talagang walang forgiveness," she said. "It is still a long process."

Esperat’s eldest Janice said that they are hoping that the alleged masterminds, Sabay and Montañer, will also be charged and convicted.

Court records show Barua said Sabay and Montañer were angry at Esperat because she allegedly ruined their reputation through her newspaper stories in the Midland Review, a weekly newspaper in Tacurong City.

Montañer allegedly admitted in Barua’s presence that he had been planning to kill Esperat, but that the journalist was very elusive. Barua claimed that he contracted Bismanos and his group to kill Esperat for P120,000, excluding "operational expenses."

Montañer and Sabay were earlier impleaded in the case, and a warrant of arrest was issued against them on March 20, 2005 in Tacurong City.

However, the warrants were recalled when the panel of prosecutors earlier handling the case dismissed the case against them after a reinvestigation.

Esperat was shot and killed in her home at Purok Ilang-ilang in Barangay New Isabela, Tacurong City while having dinner with her family.

The case against Bismanos, Cabayag, Grecia, Sabay, Montañer and Barua was first filed in court on April 8 last year, but Prosecutor Al Calica amended the information.In a statement, the National Press Club welcomed yesterday the Cebu City court’s decision against the convicted killers of Esperat.

"Now is the time to serve justice for journalists, although justice have been served to the family of Marlene Garcia-Esperat," read the statement.

"Their sufferings will ease only if the masterminds will also be sent to jail with their conspirators. The instant action of Justice Secretary Gonzalez deserved applause. This means that the Arroyo government is on the right direction to go after the perpetrators of injustice against legitimate journalists, who are just doing their jobs and expressing their rights under our Constitution."

In Socssargen Region in Mindanao, journalists in South Cotabato, Sultan Kudarat, Sarangani and General Santos City rejoiced yesterday on the conviction of Bismanos, Cabayag and Grecia.

"The conviction of the suspects involved in the killing of Marlene Garcia-Esperat is a victory for all the journalists and members of the media community in Socssargen area," John Paul Jubelag, regional coordinator of the Alyansa ng Filipinong Mamahayag (Afima) in Central Mindanao, said in a phone interview.

Jubelag said other cases involving the killing of journalists in Socksargen Region should also be given "special attention."

"Yung kaso sana ni Radyo Natin anchorman Ely Binoya mabigyan din sana ng special attention," he said. "Hindi lang si Esperat yung pinatay na media dito sa Socsksargen area."

Members of the Sultan Kudarat Tri-Media Association "praised" Menchaves for the decision convicting the accused killers of Esperat.

Juanito Laguna, publisher of the weekly community paper Midland Review ,where Esperat wrote a column, hailed the court for rendering a decision "to heal the wounds left by Esperat’s death."

"Esperat’s case is similar to the case of former Tacurong mayor Jose Escribano," he said in an e-mail statement.

"The triggerman was found guilty, served his sentence but the mastermind remained unknown," he said.

Laguna is president of the Sultan Kudarat Tri-Media Association.

The National Union of Journalists of the Philippines also welcomed the conviction of Bismanos, Cabayag and Grecia.

"We welcome the decision," NUJP chairman Jose Torres Jr. said in an e-mail statement. "It’s a victory for press freedom."

On the other hand, the International Federation of Journalists is heartened by the conviction.

"This is a rare win in the battle for justice for the overwhelming numbers of journalists brutally murdered in the Philippines," IFJ President Christopher Warren said in a statement.

"We are hopeful that this victory for press freedom will set a solid example for future trials of journalist killers and send a strong message to those who seek to silence the media through brutal murders that they will be brought to justice." — Fred Languido (Freeman News Service), Jose Rodel Clapano, Ramil Bajo, Cesar Ramirez, AFP