Negotiations on for surrender of journalist’s gunman

ZAMBOANGA CITY — Negotiations are ongoing for the surrender of a policeman tagged as the gunman in the May 2002 killing of Pagadian City journalist Edgar Damalerio.

Chief Superintendent Servando Hizon, Western Mindanao (Region 9) police director, revealed this as he belied reports that the suspect, PO1 Guillermo Wapile, was arrested last Tuesday.

"He is not physically in our hands. There (are) ongoing negotiations and there is a possibility we can get him within this week," Hizon said.

Earlier, Philippine National Police (PNP) chief Deputy Director General Edgar Aglipay announced Wapile’s arrest, something which the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) promptly lauded.

Hizon, however, said Aglipay "misheard" him and that he was able to explain the "miscommunication and it was already understood."

Hizon declined to reveal where Wapile is, except saying that he is not in Western Mindanao.

Superintendent Karib Muamil, Zamboanga del Sur police director, also belied the reports on Wapile’s arrest.

"We cannot say yet (his) location because we have an ongoing operation," Muamil told radio station dxRC Super Radyo.

Damalerio, a hard-hitting radio commentator and managing editor of the Zamboanga Scribe, a weekly newspaper based in Pagadian City, was gunned down on May 13, 2002 while he was driving his owner-type jeep near the Pagadian police headquarters.

Although witnesses had identified Wapile as the triggerman, police filed criminal charges against another person.

In January last year, Wapile escaped from police custody after the local court ordered his arrest. This raised a howl among media organizations which lambasted the Pagadian police for supposedly protecting Wapile.

On June 8, 2003, former PNP chief Director General Hermogenes Ebdane Jr. dismissed Wapile as well as Superintendent Asuri Hawani, Pagadian City police chief.

The NUJP earlier revealed that Damalerio’s family and two witnesses in his killing were living in fear after they were reportedly dropped out of the government’s witness protection program. — With Artemio Dumlao