Ilocos media denounce Laoag broadcaster’s slay

SAN FERNANDO CITY, La Union — Private and government media organizations in the Ilocos region denounced the killing of broadcaster Roger Mariano of dzJC-Aksyon Radyo Laoag, who was killed Saturday night by unidentified assailants.

Ruben Ballesteros, news director of dzNL-Aksyon Radio (La Union) and station manager of Radio Natin Bacnotan, condemned the incident saying that there are people who got hurt by his exposés but it’s not the way to silence him.

"Authorities should conduct speedy investigations (to punish those people involved in the killing)," he said.

Ballesteros also said the Manila Broadcasting Company, who owns dzJC and dzNL, had already asked the Department of Justice, to look into the matter for the speedy solution of the case.

Philippine Information Agency (PIA) Regional Director Abraham Lebadia and Ben Pacris, a PIA officer based in Vigan City, also expressed sadness over the incident and said they would coordinate with the police.

Sammy Bangloy, Ilocos Norte bureau chief of Gazette, said that Mariano is a hero for giving his life to the cause of press freedom. "Robert Mariano, as a crusading investigative commentator, gave his life for the cause of press freedom. It is in that sense that he should belong to the pantheon of media heroes in the countryside," he said.

For his part, Ilocos Gov. Ferdinand "Bongbong" Marcos Jr. said that Mariano‘s murder was a "blow to free speech."

Meanwhile, investigators are looking into an old murder case where Mariano was implicated even as other angles are not yet ruled out including his incessant attacks against jueteng and alleged corruption in the local electric cooperative.

The 1999 murder case involved the killing of Lauro Miguel, a janitor at the Laoag public market. The case, however, was alread solved and Mariano and his co-accused were cleared.

Local folk told The STAR that several weeks prior to his death, Mariano was hitting the proliferation of jueteng and alleged financial anomalies at the Ilocos Norte Electric Cooperative (INEC).