Newsman’s killer gets life

MANILA, Philippines - A Caloocan City court yesterday sentenced to life imprisonment one of the gunmen who killed a Malacañang reporter in an ambush in Malabon City in 2006.

Presiding Judge Eleanor Kwong found Rommel Lirazan guilty of killing Alberto Orsolino, a photojournalist for the tabloid Saksi.

Lirazan was also ordered to pay Orsolino’s widow, Ma. Elisa, exemplary and moral damages.

Another accused, Ramon Rivera, reportedly died inside the Caloocan City jail the night before the promulgation of the case.

A third suspect identified as Rolando Manaug remains at-large.

Ma. Elisa said the alleged mastermind, a prominent personality in Navotas, who was charged for the murder of the sister of a beauty queen-turned-actress in 2009, is still scot-free.

City Prosecutor Darwin Cañete, who took over the case from lawyer Ross Bautista, said the killing of Orsolino was sensational and even caught the attention of international watchdogs looking into the killing of journalists in the country.

Orsolino, a former barangay councilor in Tonsuya, Malabon, was on his way to work when he was ambushed by motorcycle-riding men in front of a gasoline station in Letre on May 16, 2006.

Police records showed that Lirazan and Manaug abandoned the motorcycle and commandeered a passing FX taxi as they fled the crime scene.

The motorcycle’s ownership was traced to a policeman, who reportedly sold it in 2005 to an Indian who eventually sold it to Lirazan days before the ambush.

Cañete said Lirazan’s lawyer initially expressed confidence that his client would be absolved of the crime. But the judge later withdrew from the case.

Lirazan was represented by a lawyer from the Public Attorney’s Office during yesterday’s promulgation.

At least three angles surfaced during the initial investigation of the case, including political rivalry since Orsolino was planning to run for barangay chairman at that time.

The newsman also had a row with the family of a suspected drug pusher killed in their barangay in 2005. But the recovery of the motorcycle and the positive identification of Lirazan as the gunman by several witnesses helped in the solution of the case.