Davao radioman’s slay scored

DAVAO CITY — Journalists across Mindanao, still reeling from the Aug. 20 murder of an Agusan del Sur radio reporter, cried for justice yesterday for local broadcaster and former councilor Juan "Jun" Pala who was gunned down last Saturday night.

If these killings are not swiftly solved, Merpu Roa, president of the Mindanao Institute of Journalism, said they would "give the wrong signal to harm more journalists with impunity."

Sen. Aquilino Pimentel also joined the call, saying, "Jun Pala’s murder is a cause for alarm because it was cold-blooded and because it tends to freeze press exposés, whether right or wrong."

Last Aug. 20, Agusan del Sur radio—man Rico Ramirez was found dead.

Pala, 49, who gained prominence for backing the anti-communist Alsa Masa vigilante group here in the 1980s, was the sixth Filipino journalist killed this year and the 42nd since 1986. The slayings are largely unsolved.

It was the third attempt to kill Pala in the past two years. He had been broadcasting from home in recent months because of death threats and previous efforts to kill him.

Mayor Rodrigo Duterte said on his TV program yesterday that he was ready to be investigated over speculations he may have been involved in Pala’s death.

"I’d be happy to submit myself to any investigation. I would not want to comment on the case. If you have questions, go and ask the police," he said.

Chief Superintendent Isidro Lapeña, regional police director, said no one has yet been arrested for the killing.

"We are still awaiting the results of the investigation," he said.

Two men armed with a rifle and pistol shot Pala on an unlit road here, killing him instantly and slightly injuring his two police bodyguards, police said.

He was walking home from a card game at a neighbor’s house when he was attacked.

One of his guards carried a rifle but it was not immediately clear if the guard was able to fire back at the attackers, who fled with a third man on a motorcycle, police investigator Ranulfo Cabanog said.

Pala’s wife, Louie, 38, said her husband hinted about his plan to run for city councilor next year. He served as councilor for one term in the late 1990s.

"Nawala na ang kanyang pangarap (His dream is now gone). But I leave to God what the killers did to my husband. The Lord is watching and they will suffer three times more than what my husband had suffered," she said.

Pala rose to local prominence because of his fiery anti-communist radio rhetoric and support of Alsa Masa, a civilian group that fought Marxist guerrillas in Davao in the 1980s. Alsa Masa was accused of human rights violations.

In recent years, Pala had toned down his anti-communist tirades and shifted his verbal attacks to drug syndicates, corrupt officials, and abuses arising from an anti-crime campaign by Duterte, known for his tough crime-busting methods. — With AP