Two witnesses in Pastolero murder missing

COTABATO CITY – Two witnesses to Monday’s brutal murder of local newspaper publisher Hernani Pastolero have been missing since Wednesday, a relative of the victim said.

Joel Pastolero, a nephew of the slain journalist, said yesterday they have been looking for the two witnesses who had failed to show up at the office here of the Criminal Investigation and Detection Group (CIDG) to help investigators identify the gunman that shot dead his uncle.

The witnesses are a 40-year-old neighbor of Pastolero and a 15-year-old boy who was at the vicinity of Pastolero’s house in Shariff Kabunsuan, Sultan Kudarat at the time of the murder. Both have expressed willingness to assist in the probe.

"They left their houses last Wednesday and were supposed to proceed to the CIDG office, but failed to appear there and have not returned to their homes since," Joel said.

Superintendent Roberto Badian, chief of the CIDG in the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao, confirmed inviting the two witnesses to his office.

Chief Superintendent Joel Goltiao, director of the ARMM police, said "politics" could be one possible angle on the murder of Pastolero.

Goltiao said the 64-year-old Pastolero was said to have "endorsed" a candidate for governor of the newly created Shariff Kabunsuan province during a recent public gathering in their barangay.

Pastolero was a leader of a homeowners association in Barangay Bulalo, a district of mixed Muslim and Christian residents about two kilometers from this city.

"But we are not also discounting other angles such as his being a journalist and a community leader in Sultan Kudarat," Goltiao told reporters.

A veteran mediaman for 30 years, Pastolero, however, was not known as a hard-hitting journalist. Relatives say he did not have any known enemies or threats to his life.

Pastolero, was taking his coffee at a basketball court fronting his house in Barangay Bulalo when his assassin casually approached him from behind and fired two shots from a .45 caliber pistol to his head. He died instantly. Witnesses said the suspect simply walked away afterwards.

Goltiao has organized Task Force Hernani led by the Sultan Kudarat municipal police to get the killer’s identity and determine the motive for the attack.

Pastolero was the first journalist slain in the country this year, and the third in Central Mindanao in five years.