Task force to probe motive in Ecija publisher's killing

CAMP OLIVAS, Pampanga, Philippines – Police yesterday formed a special task force to investigate the motive behind the murder of a tabloid publisher in Nueva Ecija last Sunday.

“We are pursuing the case resolutely, we have good leads, we just need to document everything,” said Senior Superintendent Ricardo Marquez, Nueva Ecija provincial police director, referring to the killing of Edilberto Cruz, publisher of local tabloid Salida.

Cruz was riding his motorcycle when a lone gunman approached and shot him at close range along Maharlika Highway in Barangay San Juan Accfa, Cabanatuan City last Sunday night.

Police said Cruz died while being treated for a gunshot wound in the head at the MV Gallego Cabanatuan City Hospital.

Investigators are conducting a ballistics test in an effort to trace the origin of the bullet that was taken from Cruz’s head.

Cruz’s widow Regina told investigators that she did not even know that her husband was a publisher of Salida.

But Mrs. Cruz said she had information that her husband was having an affair with a freelance radio announcer whose live-in partner was also slain in 2007.

Police investigators are not ruling out the possibility that Cruz’s murder was work-related.

Cruz led Salida in reporting stories primarily on economic development in Nueva Ecija.

Armand Galang, president of the Nueva Ecija Press Club, however, told police that Cruz was not even a member of their organization or the National Press Club.

Chief Superintendent Alan Purisima, Central Luzon police director, ordered Marquez to report any development on the case.

Cruz was the latest victim in a wave of killings involving journalists.

International groups have ranked the Philippines among the high-risk countries for journalists.

Last month, Miguel Belen, 48, a reporter of radio station dwEB, was ambushed by unidentified men in Nabua, Camarines Sur.

A week earlier, Jose Daguio, 72, a reporter of a community newspaper, was killed in his house in Tabuk City, Kalinga.

Daguio was the first recorded journalist to be killed under the Aquino administration, and possibly the oldest to be slain in the line of duty.

Over 100 journalists have been killed in the country, mostly during the nine-year administration of former President Gloria Macapagal-Arroyo. – With Artemio Dumlao