Suspects in Esperat’s murder plead not guilty

Four men accused of killing journalist Marlene Esperat, known for digging into government corruption, pleaded not guilty yesterday, a court official said.

The suspects, including an Army sergeant, were arrested separately last month on charges of murdering Esperat, 45, a columnist for The Midland Review, at her home in southern Tacurong City in March.

The accused included the suspected gunman, a lookout and two accomplices, said Marianita Seguia, acting clerk of the Tacurong Regional Trial Court.

Details of their indictments were not immediately available.

Esperat was the third journalist slain this year, the National Union of Journalists of the Philippines (NUJP) said. Last week, a broadcaster died after being shot by unidentified assailants in Dipolog City.

National police spokesman Senior Superintendent Leopoldo Bataoil on Friday said journalists would be allowed to carry guns for self-defense and could be assigned police bodyguards on request.

But NUJP chairwoman Inday Espina Varona condemned the police decision, saying authorities needed to arrest, prosecute and convict the murderers, not arm journalists.

Meanwhile, investigators released yesterday the artist sketch of one of the possible killers of radio broadcaster Kline Cantoneros in Dipolog City.

Senior Superintendent Pedro Tango, chief of the Philippine National Police (PNP) Task Force Newsman, said the sketch was given to investigators by a reluctant witness, who spotted three men acting suspiciously inside the 8 Food Park in Dipolog City, hours before Cantoneros was assassinated.

Police have yet to give description of two other suspects who were seen at the restaurant on the evening of April 28, the day before Cantoneros was ambushed along the Sta. Felomina Highway.

Several days after Cantoneros was slain, two journalists from Cebu and Laguna had reported that they have been getting death threats.

Carlos Conde, NUJP secretary general, reported that over the weekend, Suzanne Salva, 29, a reporter for Cebu Daily News, allegedly received text messages that she would be killed.

Meanwhile, Conde said that San Pablo City journalist Dodie Banzuela reported on Sunday that he was approached by a man identified only as Boyet Marcelo and threatened to kill him. — AP, Cecille Suerte Felipe, Artemio Dumlao