MANILA, Philippines - Police have identified the owner of the gun used in the killing of radio broadcaster Gerardo Ortega as a former provincial administrator of Palawan.
Puerto Princesa City police director Rolando Amurao identified the gun owner as Romeo Seratubias, the former administrator of the provincial government of Palawan.
The .45 caliber pistol traced to Seratubias was used by Marlon Dicamata, the gunman who allegedly confessed to killing Ortega for P150,000.
Seratubias denied any knowledge of the plot to murder Ortega, a known advocate of environmental protection.
“Seratubias claimed he had sold his gun a long time ago,” Amurao said.
Amurao added they would verify the document that would prove who is the real owner of the murder weapon.
Amurao said Seratubias is in the custody of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and has promised to produce the documents of the firearm.
In the event the identity of the buyer of the gun is established, Amurao said the new owner will be invited for questioning.
Amurao earlier said Dicamata had confessed to killing Ortega.
The assassin told the police following his arrest that he and another accomplice, who remains at large, had been contracted to kill Ortega to stop his criticism of unnamed powerful people.
“They were first given P10,000 each and some operational funds, and the rest was to have been paid after the deed was accomplished,” Amurao said.
He said the total amount to be shared between the two men was P150,000.
Dimacata claimed he does not know who was behind the plan to kill Ortega but pointed to a certain Dennis Aranas as his lookout.
Amurao added that the gunmen might have been working on behalf of mining interests.
Ortega was shot in the head while shopping in a clothing store in Puerto Princesa on Monday morning shortly after he finished his daily broadcast.
Dicamata was apprehended while trying to flee the scene.
The identities of the men who approached Dicamata to do the job as well as the supposed mastermind were still being verified and could not be publicly released due to the sensitivity of the investigation, Amurao said.
On the other hand, Seratubias, the supposed owner of the gun used in the shooting, is a lawyer who had been known to represent mining interests in the past.
“We are looking at that as a possible motive. Ortega’s hard-hitting commentaries were targeted against mining companies he had accused of destroying Palawan’s environment,” Amurao said.
Amurao described the slain journalist as a staunch environmentalist who regularly went to church and was well liked in the province.
Media and rights groups led by the Manila Overseas Press Club (MOPC) condemned the murder of Ortega.
“The continued senseless slaying of journalists must not go unpunished, and we urge the authorities to leave no stone unturned in speedily solving the murder of Ortega and identify the mastermind of this dastardly act,” the MOPC said in a statement.
The New York City-based Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), the Reporters Without Borders, and the International Federation of Journalists (IFJ) sent separate statements condemning the killing.
The CPJ said the local police “must thoroughly investigate the motives behind the killing.”
Reporters Without Borders asked local authorities for a swift investigation and resolution of the case.
“The organization is horrified by this act of savagery and calls once again on the government to guarantee the protection of journalists,” the group said.
The IFJ through its Asia-Pacific bureau chief Jacqueline Park said “Ortega’s murder is a reminder that the Philippines is still among the world’s most dangerous countries for media workers.”
“His death, like those of all his colleagues before him, must not go unpunished by authorities in the Philippines,” Park said.
An environmental group, Kalikasan People’s Network for the Environment (PNE), said the killing of Ortega “is a serious loss to the movement for environmental protection.”
Ortega is the fourth environmental defender killed under the Aquino administration.
“The perpetrators should be prosecuted immediately and justice must be rendered swiftly,” said Clemente Bautista of Kalikasan PNE.
“We believe Ortega was killed because of his active involvement in preserving the biodiversity and environment of Palawan against large-scale and foreign mining. Ortega is known as a strong critique of mining projects and advocate of mining moratorium in Palawan. Like him… (others) were killed because of their vocal and effective advocacy for the environment and communities,” Bautista said.
Senators Loren Legarda and Pia Cayetano also condemned the killing of Ortega.
Legarda said Ortega’s death is a loss not only to the media industry but also to the environment sector.
“It is lamentable that a journalist, who courageously advocated for environment protection, had to die brutally,” she said.
Legarda, a former broadcast journalist, said the murders committed against members of media showed the urgency of passing a legislation that would qualify the killing of journalists as murder.
Ortega was the 142nd journalist killed since the fall of dictator Ferdinand Marcos and the restoration of democracy in 1986.
Most infamously, 30 journalists were among 57 people murdered in Maguindanao, allegedly by members of a powerful Muslim clan who wanted to eliminate a rival’s political challenge. – Cecille Suerte Felipe Rhodina Villanueva, Cesar Ramirez, Christina Mendez